Celtics’ Jrue Holiday wins NBA’s social justice award, a week after winning sportsmanship award

Jrue Holiday’s commitment to off-court work continues to be noticed and appreciated within the NBA.

Holiday, the Boston Celtics’ guard, was revealed Wednesday as the recipient of the league’s Social Justice Champion award for this season. The announcement came less than a week after Holiday won the league’s sportsmanship award for the second time his career.

The NBA will donate $100,000 to the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund and he will receive the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy. Holiday was selected from a group of finalists that also included Miami’s Bam Adebayo, San Antonio’s Harrison Barnes, Toronto’s Chris Boucher and New Orleans’ CJ McCollum.

The award, the NBA said, pays tribute to those who are “pursuing social justice and advancing Abdul-Jabbar’s life mission to engage, empower and drive equality for individuals and groups who have been historically disadvantaged.”

The fund started by Holiday and his wife Lauren, commonly called the JLH Fund, has distributed over $5.3 million in grants and delivered more than 400 hours of coaching and support to nearly 200 businesses across the U.S. It was founded five years ago after Holiday, when he decided to play in the bubble during the 2019-20 season, pledged the $5 million that remained on his salary that season to help businesses and communities affected by systemic racism and economic injustice.

“Since entering the league, Jrue Holiday has dedicated himself to helping others in their times of greatest need and pursuing a more just society for all,” NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum said. “The selflessness that defines his game is even more evident in the work he and his wife Lauren do off the floor to create more opportunities for a generation of youth who might have otherwise been overlooked.”

The JLH Fund has expanded its scope since, with some of its recent efforts including helping those affected by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area earlier this year, providing grant capital to businesses and helping entrepreneurs and others have access to coaching from schools like MIT, Harvard and Suffolk University.

The award is decided upon by a panel that includes Tatum, Abdul-Jabbar, human rights activist Richard Lapchick, National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial, UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía, and youth representative JJ Mandaquit from the Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA Court of Leaders.

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