Champion

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest basketball players of all time as well as a committed social justice activist. In 2020, the NBA created the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award in his honor. He is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning documentary producer who has won two NAACP Image Awards, and a twice Emmy-nominated narrator. He is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Ford Medal of Freedom, the Rosa Parks Award, the Double Helix Medal, the University of California Presidential Medal, and Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Medal of Courage. He holds eight honorary doctorate degrees and is a U.S. Cultural Ambassador. Currently, Abdul-Jabbar serves as the chairman of Skyhook Foundation, bringing educational STEM opportunities to underserved communities. He also writes a biweekly newsletter commenting on the intersection of news, sports, and popular culture, for which he has won nine Columnist of the Year awards.

Raymond Obstfeld is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, and nonfiction writer. He has coauthored several books with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and has published over fifty books of his own. He teaches creative writing at Orange Coast College.

Ed Laroche is an illustrator, storyboard artist, and graphic novelist who has created advertising and commercials for clients such as CBS Studios, Warner Bros., Cartoon Network, Hasbro, and AMC. He is the creator of the Warning series and has written two critically acclaimed graphic novels, Almighty and Waveform.