Stephen Curry wins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry was named the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award winner, the NBA introduced Tuesday.

The honor, named right after the six-time NBA MVP and No. 2 on the job scoring checklist, is provided to the player who ideal embodies Abdul-Jabbar’s concept of civil rights, Black empowerment and racial equality.

Curry — a four-time NBA champion and two-time MVP — was selected based mostly on his get the job done in advocating for voting legal rights, gender and racial equity in athletics, and food items shortage in underserved communities.

Curry is the co-chair of former initially lady Michelle Obama’s “When We All Vote” initiative, along with athletes Chris Paul and Megan Rapinoe, and singer-actress Janelle Monae. The initiative’s mission is to “increase participation in just about every and just about every election by serving to to near the race and age hole,” in accordance to its web page. Also, as a participant in the league’s and participant union’s joint social justice-focused coalition, Curry has pushed for the passage of the Liberty to Vote Act, which seeks to broaden voter registration and voting access. (The monthly bill, introduced in September 2021, was blocked by Republican senators.)

As a result of his UNDERRATED brand name, Curry has presented scholarships for substantial university athletes, and in 2019 announced a 6-yr, $6 million commitment to fund the men’s and women’s golf groups at historically Black Howard College.

Alongside with his spouse, Ayesha, Curry carries on to operate the couple’s Try to eat. Understand. Participate in. Basis, which focuses on childhood nourishment and bodily exercise in Oakland, California, where the Warriors performed until eventually transferring to San Francisco in 2019. In accordance to the NBA’s information release, Try to eat. Learn. Engage in. has delivered over 2 million meals and 500,000 books to Oakland learners and remodeled 4 playgrounds in the city.

The winner of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award is gifted $100,000 to the charity of his selection. For Curry, that is the College of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice, which in accordance to its website, “investigates, illuminates, and developments the idea and apply of transformational nonviolence to confront and prevail over injustice and systemic violence and add to the just resolution of communal conflict.”

“We are humbled and deeply honored to obtain this extraordinary reward, enabling us to enlarge the impact of our community partnerships and initiatives,” reported Jonathan D. Greenberg, director of the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice, in a assertion supplied to Andscape. “Stephen Curry is a tremendous, inspiring hero on and off the basketball court, a focused activist, chief and humanitarian, and we congratulate him on this extraordinary award and share our deepest gratitude.”

Curry was named a finalist together with Memphis Grizzlies ahead Jaren Jackson Jr., San Antonio Spurs guard Tre Jones, Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul and Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams. The 4 finalists will be awarded $25,000 a piece toward their respective social justice-centered companies.

Curry joins Dallas Mavericks guard Reggie Bullock (2022) and inaugural winner Carmelo Anthony (2021) as recipients of the award.

“As an athlete, I continually leverage my system to amplify advocacy and deal with the pervasive challenge of systemic racism,” Curry stated in a assertion. “I firmly feel that we should be vocal each on social media and in genuine everyday living, having tangible actions to result genuine improve in our society and for generations to come.”

The award is voted on by a committee composed of Abdul-Jabbar, Countrywide City League president and CEO Marc Morial and NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, among some others.