![\"Muhammad](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Screen-Shot-2016-06-06-at-10.29.24-AM-e1465235037869.png\")
<\/a>Muhammad Ali and Karen Salkin. Photo by INAM staff.<\/p><\/div>\n
There’s so much to say about the true Greatest of All Time, and, by now, most of it has been stated by others. So, rather than wishing that he was still here, and ruing the unfairness he often encountered in life, I want to pay tribute to the Champ in the best way I know how–by sharing my own little personal story of him.<\/p>\n
Meeting, and \u201cinterviewing,\u201d Muhammad Ali was one of the shining moments of my career. (And life<\/em>!) It\u2019s seriously right up there with my Tonight Show<\/em> appearances. When I was asked to be the TV correspondent in the VIP tent, interviewing the celebrity guests, for the 1992 Los Angeles Marathon, little did I know that my day would end with meeting the one-and-only Muhammad Ali. Prior to that moment, it had seemed like one of my lesser<\/em> gigs. And that status was confirmed to me when they had me chat with Marla Gibbs…while she showed me how to make an ice cream sundae. How idiotic. I was thinking, \u201cGet me out of here!\u201d<\/p>\n Muhammad Ali actually talking to Karen Salkin! Photo by INAM staff.<\/p><\/div>\n And then I spied the Champ walking in. He was already in the throes of the evil Parkinson\u2019s Disease that plagued him for so much of his life. So, even though I knew he could barely speak at that point, and definitely wasn\u2019t even attempting<\/em> it in public anymore, I begged my producer to ask him if we could do something on camera. Anything. She hesitated a bit, but then acquiesced. When she approached Ali, she explained that I<\/em> do enough talking for both of us. He asked with whom he would be doing the piece, and when she pointed me out to him, I guess the look on my face was so desperate that it compelled him to agree, for which I am eternally grateful.<\/p>\n I was well aware that I was acting like a goony fangirl over him, but that’s exactly what I was. Even my younger self realized how special this moment was. We knew that he wasn’t going to talk on camera, so, as agreed upon off-air, I just went over with the microphone, and, (practically crying, I must admit,) asked him for his autograph. And that\u2019s all the segment was supposed to be.<\/p>\n So, I almost fainted when he whispered to me! He asked me if I would like a book he was involved in, and, of course, I said yes! And then to make it all the best possible experience, he asked me for my name, spelled it back to me to be sure, and then signed the book for me!<\/p>\n<\/a>