Jaylen Brown, Bam Adebayo Headline 2025-26 NBA Social Justice Champion Award Finalists

The Boston Celtics' Jaylen Brown and Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo are among the finalists for the 2025-26 NBA Social Justice Champion award, the league announced Friday.

Brown and Adebayo join the San Antonio Spurs' Harrison Barnes, Detroit Pistons' Tobias Harris and Cleveland Cavaliers' Larry Nance Jr. as the five finalists for the award.

The Social Justice Champion Award has been distributed annually since 2020 in honor of Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The winner, announced during the upcoming conference finals, will choose a charity to receive a $100,000 donation from the NBA.

The NBA credited Adebayo with investing more than $563,000 into youth and family programs in South Florida and North Carolina.

These included providing mattresses and school supplies to students in Miami and transportation for 19,000 students to the Miami Book Fair, according to the NBA.

Adebayo's foundation also ran an annual toy drive and youth basketball camps while installing a Heat-themed basketball court at a Miami homeless shelter.

Brown earned his finalist spot after co-founding an accelerator that accrued $2.5 million in capital to fund minority-owned businesses, according to the NBA.

The Celtics star also remained involved in helping high school students prepare for college through his 7uice Foundation Bridge Program. All participating students were accepted to schools to which they applied during the 2025-26 season, according to the NBA.

Barnes is in the running after pledging $150,000 to 10 nonprofits around San Antonio during the season, according to the NBA.

He also contributed $50,000 to a San Antonio scholarship program for seniors, gave out groceries and gift cards to families in the city's East Side and contributed to refurbishing basketball courts in Texas and Mexico, the league reported.

Harris is contending for the award through his work with the Tobias Harris Homeownership Initiative (THHI), which helps lower payments for first-time homebuyers in Detroit.

He invested more than $1 million into the initiative while also being involved in the development of affordable housing projects in Los Angeles, according to the NBA.

Nance was named a finalist for the award after donating to a Cleveland homeless charity for pregnant women and women with children, and contributing $15,000 to digestive health research and establishing a scholarship fund for high school seniors, according to the NBA.

The NBA also highlighted Nance having "leveraged the visibility of his pregame walk-ins to raise awareness around social justice issues."

Barnes and Adebayo were also finalists for the 2024-25 award. The honor went to Portland Trail Blazers guard Jrue Holiday, who was then playing for the Celtics.