The NBA announced on Thursday, May 13, that it has created a new award in honor of retired NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The new honor will celebrate NBA players whose work off the court strives for social justice and racial equality.
The title is officially known as the “Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award” and the winner of the inaugural award will be announced during the playoffs. That player will receive $100,000 from the league to donate to an organization of his choosing. Four additional finalists will receive $25,000.
“It’s nice to see the NBA try to promote social justice awareness, and I am very flattered they would see fit to name the award after me,” Abdul-Jabbar told The Undefeated. “I know I have some history with this, so I’m happy the way it’s worked out.”
Similar to how the winner of the NFL’s “Walter Payton Man of the Year Award” is decided, each NBA franchise will nominate one player for the award. The winner is then chosen by a committee of league executives, activists and former NBA players.
The retired NBA champion, former Los Angeles Laker and Milwaukee Buck, is the league’s all-time leading scorer and a noted civil rights activist. Throughout his career, he was an outspoken champion for Black rights and helped organize a boycott of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City due to the mistreatment of Blacks in the U.S. He was also a pivotal organizer in the assassinations of civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
While in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar and other famous Black athletes that included Jim Brown and Bill Russell, organized the Cleveland Summit in support of world champion boxer Muhammad Ali’s decision to refuse entry into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. The six-time NBA champion also admires the works that NFL, NBA and other athletes are doing to bring awareness to police brutality and racial inequality in America and their support of organizations like Black Lives Matter.
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