Retired professional basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar stars in a new commercial ad for the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.

According to Contact Music, the six-time NBA Most Valuable Player reenacts his role for the 1980s comedy flick Airplane! It was a humorous comedy movie about an airplane crew that all became sick during the flight, and the only person who can help land the plane safely was the co-pilot who has a great fear of flying. The movie was recognised as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time in 2008. It was chosen for safeguarding by the Library of Congress in the National Film Registry in 2010.

For those of you who do not know, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has tried his hand at acting in film and television. His first appearance in a movie was with Hong Kong American martial artist Bruce Lee in a film titled Game of Death. In 1980, Kareem played as a co-pilot for the comedy film titled Airplane! It was released and titled Flying High! in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Philippines, and South Africa. Kareem has indeed appeared in quite several films and TV shows.

"The commercials were filmed in the very same cockpit used for the 1980 comedy movie at the Air Hollywood Studio in Los Angeles, California," Fox reported. The commercial will first be seen at the Wisconsin's Governor Conference on Tourism which will be held in March 2013 in Lake Geneva.

In the original movie, Kareem was wearing a Lakers jersey when the airplane starts to descend and crash. In the new tourism commercial, Kareem is spotted wearing a Bucks jersey.

SB Nation posted a sneak picture on its Twitter account.

We hope that the commercial is as hilarious and funny as the original one, filled with silly and fast-paced clever comedy, visual puns, and verbal gags. We could not find any snippets for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's new commercial ad yet, but in the meantime, you can amuse yourself with a short video clip of the movie Airplane starring the NBA legend.

 Video courtesy: YouTube/TUBEBOO55