NBA Season is Returning This Year!!!!!!!
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NBA creates award in honor of Abdul-Jabbar
The NBA has created a new award in honor of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the league's leading career scorer and a noted civil rights activist, that will recognize a player who best embodies his striving for social justice and racial equality.
NBA creates Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award
The NBA has created a new award in honor of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the league's all-time leading scorer and a noted civil rights activist, that will recognize a player who best embodies his striving for social justice and racial equality, the league announced Thursday.
The winner of the inaugural Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award will be announced during the playoffs and 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, 74, told The Undefeated. "I know I have some history with this, so I'm happy the way it's worked out."
All 30 NBA teams will nominate a player for the award, and finalists will be selected by a seven-person committee composed of league executives, activists and former NBA players.
Aside from being one of the sport's greatest contributors, Abdul-Jabbar is also a man of conviction, who in the face of Jim Crow-era segregation and racial discrimination, took principled stands for the betterment and progress of African Americans.
Growing up in the Dyckman housing projects in New York City, Abdul-Jabbar was exposed to the governmental neglect of, and targeted injustices toward, poor, Black people. Incidents such as the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, when Abdul-Jabbar was just 8 years old, and the Harlem riots of 1964, sparked by the fatal shooting of James Powell, a 15-year-old Black boy, by a New York police officer, are what triggered Abdul-Jabbar's ascent into racial politics.
"Right then and there I knew who I was and who I had to be," he told Sports Illustrated in 1980. "I was going to be Black rage personified, Black power in the flesh."
Abdul-Jabbar won three consecutive NCAA championships (1967 to 1969) while at UCLA. In between them, he, alongside famed sociologist Harry Edwards, helped organize a boycott of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City due to the then-recent assassinations of civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and the continued mistreatment of Black people in America.
"It was too difficult for me to get enthusiastic about representing a country that refused to represent me or others of my color," Abdul-Jabbar wrote in his 2017 book, "Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court."
While in the NBA, Abdul-Jabbar and other famous Black male athletes, including 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.
Today, Abdul-Jabbar sees many similarities in how athletes -- such as Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James and Maya Moore -- have taken a measured approach to racial equality work much as he and others did during the civil rights movement.
"I'm glad that they're taking their time and not rushing into it. If you go into trying to effect change with a chip on your shoulder, and a lot of anger, it really turns off the people that you're trying to talk to," said Abdul-Jabbar, who grew up on the teachings of adopted Harlem son Malcolm X before a chance encounter with King while in high school led him to a peaceful, direct action.
"And I am glad they've learned that lesson and have made a commitment to do it sensibly in a nonviolent and constructive way. That's how we get change done. That's how we managed to overcome the communication gaps and break through."
Abdul-Jabbar said he hopes this award inspires young, up-and-coming basketball players to continue the work he and other athletes started some half-century ago amid heavy criticism and even death threats.
"They can't be afraid. That's the one thing that they can't do, because if you're going to give into fear, then we won't achieve anything," he said. "We have to have the courage to speak truth to power, and if we can do that, then get the others to feel that way, we can effect change."
Abdul-Jabbar played in the NBA for 20 seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers, winning six championships (five with Los Angeles). Aside from points, Abdul-Jabbar is also the career leader in All-Star Game appearances (19) and MVP awards (six).
Outside of sports, Abdul-Jabbar has written 14 books; has starred in multiple films, most notably the 1980 hit "Airplane!"; and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Barack Obama in 2016.
@jack walsh13 come get your whole damn team
I see Dwight Howard on his bullshit again
Bunch of fuckin bitch ass niggas bruh. No heart at all. I hate these niggas I swear I do. I don't cape for my team. I call it how I see it. Niggas soft as circus peanuts. Ben Simmons wit his whole 8 point havin ass. Niggas didn't even try to win. If they don't give a fuck, why should I? And that's the problem I have wit these new niggas real. Now let's see the bullshit excuse Doc Rivers gives tonight. They tired. They weren't into it. They all got herpes. Fuckin faggots.
I was going to say something profound but then I saw them tittiesBunch of fuckin bitch ass niggas bruh. No heart at all. I hate these niggas I swear I do. I don't cape for my team. I call it how I see it. Niggas soft as circus peanuts. Ben Simmons wit his whole 8 point havin ass. Niggas didn't even try to win. If they don't give a fuck, why should I? And that's the problem I have wit these new niggas real. Now let's see the bullshit excuse Doc Rivers gives tonight. They tired. They weren't into it. They all got herpes. Fuckin faggots.
Phoenix going out 1st round
Smh @ Devin Booker.
Redemption for Booker!!!
Dallas #1 is a stunning choice to me...
Warriors’ blowout 133-103 loss to Mavericks leaves them one goal: play-in tournament
The Warriors fell on the wrong end of a 28-0 run in the first half on their way to a...
I think they led by a few hundred at one point...
Real shit.
How does the fanbase view him overall..
I feel like we should have made a harder push to get Lowry and Simmons should have been available if the Raptors wanted him. Ben can be a locked down defender at times, but other times he can come across like a little bitch.
And I hate that when he doesn't cross the 3 point line, we're basically stuck playing 4 on 5 because defenders are still giving him the Giannis treatment.
THAT BEIGE BITCH GOTTA FUCKIN GO!!! Everyone here wants that pussy gone. He comes off real smug (Philly is a place that doesn't take kindly to that at all) and thinks he has all the answers. He's too Hollywood for these parts. With fans fully in the stands come June 11, he's gonna find out just how much he's hated around here. He's gonna be traded for D'Angelo Russell in the offseason. Morey does not like him at all. God is good.
I hate that faggot with all my heart and soul Sick. I wanna throw paint in his eyes.
THAT BEIGE BITCH GOTTA FUCKIN GO!!! Everyone here wants that pussy gone. He comes off real smug (Philly is a place that doesn't take kindly to that at all) and thinks he has all the answers. He's too Hollywood for these parts. With fans fully in the stands come June 11, he's gonna find out just how much he's hated around here. He's gonna be traded for D'Angelo Russell in the offseason. Morey does not like him at all. God is good.
It's that bad..
It's funny,that you mentioned the Hollywood part because over here that's one of the reasons why the fans don't like Sexton because he's not flashy at all.
@jack walsh13
Hey @jack walsh13
Well they can have The Beige Bitch then and we'll take Sexton. Least he's not afraid to go to the damn basket.
Morso Jimmy chose anyone else over Brett. Fuck dat crakkka too. Horrible coach. If I ever.......AND I MEAN EVER see him in a Walmart I'm tipping his cart over. I don't give a fuck if his grandson is in the cart or not!!! Better take that little fucker to urgent care pussy!!! Fuck a Brett Brown!!
About, fucking time...I'm so sick of the bullshit Trae Young does every game.
About, fucking time...I'm so sick of the bullshit Trae Young does every game.
Eye rolls lol?
Nobody would let you get away with that shit lol
Well they can have The Beige Bitch then and we'll take Sexton. Least he's not afraid to go to the damn basket.
I think him and Embiid would play well together...imo
