The NBA named five finalists for the 2026 NBA Social Justice Champion award on May 15, putting Miami Heat forward Bam Adebayo, Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown and three other players in line for the league’s annual honor. The winner will be announced during the Conference Finals of the 2026 NBA Playoffs and will receive the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar trophy, along with a $100,000 donation from the NBA for a nonprofit organization of his choosing.
The finalists are Adebayo, Harrison Barnes of the San Antonio Spurs, Brown, Tobias Harris of the Detroit Pistons and Larry Nance Jr. of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The award recognizes a current NBA player for pursuing social justice and for efforts that advance Abdul-Jabbar’s life mission to engage, empower and drive equality for historically disadvantaged individuals and groups.
Adebayo enters the final round with one of the strongest documented cases. During the 2025-26 season, he led 18 social justice-focused initiatives and the Bam Adebayo Foundation invested more than $563,000 into programs. That work included providing mattresses, uniforms and school supplies for students at The SEED School of Miami, funding transportation for more than 19,000 students to attend the Miami Book Fair and hosting experiences meant to expose students to new opportunities and mentorship. He also addressed food insecurity through large-scale holiday meal distributions, held an annual toy drive serving more than 2,000 children, continued support for the Bam Basketball Camp and the Liberty City Warriors program and donated a renovated Miami HEAT-themed basketball court at Camillus House Homeless Shelter.
The finalists were chosen from a pool of nominees submitted by NBA teams, a process overseen by the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion selection committee. This year marks the introduction of a new selection committee after five years of service by the previous group. The committee includes Abdul-Jabbar and NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum, along with Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, Vanessa Garrison, Shanita Brackett, Kyle Lierman, Kathy Behrens, Erika Swilley and Cayden Daughtry.
That mix of players and decision-makers gives the award a wider lens than a simple season-by-season honor. The league is asking its teams to identify players whose work reaches beyond the court, then placing those nominations before a committee tied directly to Abdul-Jabbar’s legacy. The result is a shortlist that stretches across contenders from Miami, Boston, Detroit, San Antonio and Cleveland, with each finalist carrying a different record of community work into the Conference Finals announcement.
For Adebayo, the question now is whether a season defined by measurable spending, direct student support and repeated community programming is enough to separate him from a field of established peers. For the league, the announcement is another reminder that the nba awards 2026 conversation is not only about basketball, but about which player’s off-court work best matches the standard Abdul-Jabbar set.
