Jaylen Brown is skeptical about the NBA’s Social Justice Champion award, challenging the idea of honoring players for what he considers a basic responsibility.
Brown, the NBPA Executive Committee’s Vice President since 2019, sees paying it forward as a moral obligation rather than a commendable chore. Each season, the NBA selects five players nominated for the award, and this season, Brown joined Bam Adebayo, Tobias Harris, Harrison Barnes, and Larry Nance Jr. as the finalists in the running.
“I’m
not sure why the NBA decided they needed to create this award,” Brown said Sunday night on his FCHWPO Twitch livestream. “They’ve actually asked for my participation over the course of the last five or seven years, and I turn them down every time. I don’t really feel like you need to be rewarded for your responsibility. I honestly feel like it’s a responsibility to my community. I know some people don’t feel like that.”
Five years ago, the NBA introduced the Social Justice Champion award in honor of Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the six-time champion’s lifelong efforts in social activism. Last season, then-Celtics guard Jrue Holiday won the award, which came with a $100,000 donation to the charity of his choice — the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund (JLH Fund), an organization founded in 2020 to assist Black-owned small businesses, entrepreneurs, and Black-led non-profits.
Brown, who shared the floor with Holiday for two seasons as Celtics teammates, remains connected to Jrue and his wife as the three continue to carry out their mission in Boston by investing in the Boston Creator Accelerator — a partnership between Holiday’s JLH Fund and Brown’s Boston XChange (BXC).
That’s fulfilling enough for Brown, who, throughout his decade-long stint in Boston, has strived to empower the city’s underrepresented communities.
Brown does, however, recognize Abdul-Jabbar as a pioneer worthy of admiration for both his basketball accolades and his role as a catalyst in the fight against social injustice.
“Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the one who highlights that and emphasizes that,” Brown said. “Kareem was also a great player, one of the players that I also grew up looking up to — on and off the court.”
Ever since being drafted third overall in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Celtics, Brown has grown in a similar trajectory to Kareem — both as a player and a community leader. He’s immersed himself in Boston’s culture and has never shied away from calling out areas where he believes the city can improve. In 2024, Brown launched BXC to help combat the city’s racial wealth gap by supporting Black and Brown entrepreneurs and collaborating with institutions including MIT, Harvard, and Roxbury Community College.
Annually, Brown also hosts the Bridge Program, which, through his 7uice Foundation, helps students of color prepare for college by exploring STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics).
After Brown signed his then-record-setting $304 million contract extension with the Celtics in July 2023, he stated his desire to create “Black Wall Street” in Boston. Soon after, BXC was founded.
Coming from humble beginnings in Atlanta and raised by his single mother, Dr. Mechalle Brown — who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan — Brown understands the challenges of overcoming adverse circumstances. In his mind, efforts to help the next generation carve out opportunities of their own far exceed any trophy the NBA is willing to hand out.
“I feel called to do this type of work,” Brown told his stream.
“What I do with education and STEAM, it’s a weird thing to feel like you should be compensated. I have a platform, I’ve been blessed. God has blessed me, so I take the responsibility, and I pour it to my community.”
