NBA names social justice award after basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
CBSN
The NBA is naming a new social justice award after basketball legend and longtime activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the league announced Thursday. The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Award will recognize a current NBA player for pursuing social justice and upholding the league's "values of equality, respect and inclusion."
Each team will nominate one player and a selection committee led by Abdul-Jabbar will meet once a year to choose five finalists, the league said. The winner will pick an organization to receive a $100,000 contribution and the other four will choose an organization to receive $25,000. The inaugural winner and finalists will be announced later this year. Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer, is well-known for his social justice work over the years. In a statement, Commissioner Adam Silver said Abdul-Jabar "devoted much of his life to advocating for equality and social justice."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.