Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and six MVP awards across a 20-year career with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, and his signature skyhook helped make him the NBA's all-time leading scorer for nearly four decades until the record fell in 2023. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and remains one of the most decorated players in the sport's history.

In 2009, Abdul-Jabbar founded the Skyhook Foundation to bring hands-on STEM education to underserved public school students in Los Angeles. Through Camp Skyhook, fourth and fifth graders from the Los Angeles Unified School District — many of them English language learners on free or reduced lunch programs — spend a week at an outdoor education center in the Angeles National Forest studying science in the field, from water testing to wildlife observation. The program has since expanded into Orange County, extending its reach to thousands more students.

Westcoast Sports Associates honored Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with the Roy Firestone Award in 2017, its 22nd annual presentation, recognizing a legendary playing career alongside a foundation dedicated to opening doors in science education for kids who might not otherwise have access.