Jrue Holiday’s commitment to off-court work continues to be noticed and appreciated within the NBA.
Holiday, a Boston Celtics guard, was revealed Wednesday as the league’s Social Justice Champion for the 2024-25 season. The announcement came less than a week after Holiday won the league’s sportsmanship award for the second time in 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 included Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat, Harrison Barnes of the San Antonio Spurs, Chris Boucher of the Toronto Raptors and CJ McCollum of the New Orleans Pelicans.
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 more than $5.3 million in grants and delivered more than 400 hours of coaching and support to nearly 200 businesses across the United States. It was founded five years ago during the 2019-20 season, when Holiday pledged the $5 million that remained on his salary that season to help businesses and communities affected by systemic racism and economic injustice.