The NBA announced Wednesday that Steph Curry will receive the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award. Curry will become the third player to receive the award for his work to promote voting participation in marginalized communities.

For winning the award, Curry will receive $100,000 to donate to the organization of his choice. He has reportedly selected the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice.

“Curry prioritizes uplifting communities by fostering equity and creating access to opportunity,” the league said in a statement. “As a co-chair of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s ‘When We All Vote’ initiative, Curry uses his platform to drive voter registration, education and turnout, most recently during the 2022 election season. His role encouraged millions of new voters to participate in the political process and make their voices heard through civic engagement.”

The award, named after NBA legend and civil rights activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was created in 2021 to honor players making strides in the pursuit of social justice. Carmelo Anthony was the inaugural winner in 2021 for his decades-long efforts to ensure equal representation for black communities. Veteran player Reggie Bullock won in 2022 for his support of the LGBTQ+ community through philanthropy and work with a number of local organizations.

Over the years, Curry has delivered several emphatic statements promoting increased voter participation in national and local elections, including an impassioned address to the Senate in 2021 to pass the Freedom to Vote Act. The bill aimed to limit voter suppression, gerrymandering and other partisan election practices but stalled on the Senate floor.

“Curry is also committed to raising awareness around issues of community safety, utilizing the Warriors’ 2023 White House visit to engage directly with President Biden and participate in a White House press briefing with head coach Steve Kerr to publicly address the matter.”

Curry was one of five players nominated for the 2023 award, along with Jaren Jackson Jr., Tre Jones, Grant Williams and Chris Paul. While the Warriors star receives $100,000, the other four nominees will receive $25,000 which they can donate to programs of their choice as well.

The inaugural Kareem Abdul Jabbar Social Justice Champion award has it’s finalists, and they’re forward Carmelo Anthony, forward Harrison Barnes, guard Jrue Holiday, forward Tobias Harris and forward Juan Toscano-Anderson, the NBA announced Friday. The award is named after one of the best big men of all time and a surefire top-10 player ever in Jabbar. The award is given out to the player who best embodies Abdul-Jabbar’s message of civil rights, Black empowerment and racial equality.

These five finalists were selected from a list of 30 nominees, with one from each team. The prize they receive is a $100,000 award that the league will donate to a social justice-focused organization of the winner’s choosing, and the four semi-finalists will receive $25,000 donations.

The social change fund was created by Anthony and his good friends Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade in July 2020. The fund is an investment organization that strives to address the social and economic issues facing Black communities, including voting, housing and education.

Barnes’ reason for being a potential award winner is because he worked with Be.Woke.Vote, a get-out-the-vote campaign aimed at historically disenfranchised young people. Barnes also pledged $200,000 to organizations and foundations that combat police brutality and racial inequality, including the family foundations of slain Black men and boys, including Trayvon Martin, Botham Jean, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Jordan Davis.

Holiday, whom some might consider the favorite for this award due to the fact that he won the league’s Joe Dumars Trophy for sportsmanship last week, established the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and global anti-racism protests after the murder of George Floyd.

Harris, through his own fund, the Tobias Harris Charitable Fund, awarded $300,000 to The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia to recruit teachers from historically Black colleges and universities, and created the Tobias’ Top Teachers program, which funds professional development workshops and purchases classroom supplies for teachers to help recruit and retain Black male educators.

Toscano-Anderson established the Journey to Achieve Foundation to help people of color in the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, California, and Mexico.

If you’re looking for when and where the winner of the award will be announced, it’ll be before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The NBA has announced the creation and introduction of a new award. The league announced the new award named after Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“Introducing the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award, a new annual honor that will recognize a current NBA player for pursuing social justice and upholding the league’s decades-long values of equality, respect, and inclusion,” the league announced.

“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 then 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.”

“I was really very honored to be chosen to have the award named after me,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “As a kid, I was motivated by some of the people that you just mentioned like Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Jackie Robinson, these are people that motivated me.”

Regarding the significance of the award, the Hall of Famer said, “I think this award will enable various guys on various teams to start thinking about what they can do to help things in their community. They can become activists, people who are leaders in their community.”