While the 2019 NBA Playoffs will have its share of healthy competition, another NBA event that began at noon last Wednesday and will continue until May 5 brings different meaning to healthy competition.
This event is fan voting for 2018-19 Seasonlong NBA Cares Community Assist Award presented by Kaiser Permanente, an award for the NBA player who has done the most impactful and meaningful community work. This means work that has improved the physical, mental, or social health of people in the player’s communities. Last year’s winner was Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors. Here is a montage of this year’s 10 finalists, one of whom won the off-season Community Assist Award, six of whom who won one of the monthly Community Assist Awards during the regular NBA season, and three others selected by the NBA for their work:
If you’d like to vote, you have until Sunday, May 5 at 11:59 p.m ET to do so. You have two ways. One is via a Jebbit web site. The other is by Twitter by using the #NBACommunityAssist hashtag and either the player’s handle or a hasthtag with the player’s first and then last name. Misspellings won’t count so #BonoJames (instead of #LeBronJames) or #RightPowell (instead of #DwightPowell) won’t fly. Don’t go adding middle names or nicknames either like #DamianDameDollaLillard or #DamianLogoLillard or #Damianhitthat37foot gamewinningshottosinktheheartsofOklahomaCityThunderfansLillard. The Jebbit web site also includes videos of each player’s contributions so that you aren’t just randomly voting for one.
I spoke to one of the nominees, Mike Conley, the longtime point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies. Conley is quite accomplished on the court, being only the third player (along with LeBron James and Reggie Miller) to be the all-time franchise leader in five categories (points, games played, assists, steals and 3-pointers made) in his 12 seasons with the NBA team. That means he’s dished out a lot of assists (otherwise known colloquially as “dimes”) throughout his career, 4,509 so far. His latest big assist is a lot more than 4,509 dimes though.
On April 11, Conley announced that he and his family would be donating a half-a-million dollars (or 5 million dimes) to support the Methodist Healthcare Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center part of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and based in Memphis, Tennessee. Here’s a video of the announcement:
This isn’t Conley’s first assist to the Center. Since 2011, his efforts have helped bring over a million dollars, including direct contributions and holding events like his annual Mike Conley Bowl ‘N Bash bowling event to raise money and awareness for sickle cell research. The clinic space for the Center will now bear (Grizzlies pun intended) the name The Mike and Mary Conley Comprehensive Sickle Cell Clinic.
Perhaps Conley’s efforts will bring more of a roar (again Grizzlies pun intended) to the fight against sickle cell disease, other known as sickle cell anemia. Conley told me that he viewed his donation “as a drop in the bucket, a start to raising awareness for the cause and hopefully inspiring others to join. The hope is to create a domino effect that will bring more attention and money to addressing the disease.”
Sickle cell disease is an inherited condition in which your red blood cells aren’t the flexible, round discs that they typically are. Instead, many of your red blood cells may assume crescent-shapes that look like little sickles, hence the name. Besides being shaped differently, these sickle-shaped blood cells are more rigid and stiff as well, making it tougher for them to get through your smaller blood vessels. As a result, they can clog up these vessels, preventing the proper flow of blood.
Your red blood cells are kind of really important, as they are the things that carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. Consider your red blood cells to be the Lyfts for both bringing oxygen to body tissue and taking carbon dioxide away with a protein called hemoglobin being the seats in the cars. Think about how many different problems you can have if your red blood cells keep clogging up different areas of your circulation and in turn starving different body parts of oxygen. This includes severe pain, strokes, vision loss, bone, joint, and growth problems, leg ulcers, severe lung damage, and more infections if your infection-fighting spleen is compromised. Some of these complications can be life-threatening.
Conley said, “I have two cousins with sickle cell disease, so they helped me see the challenges of the condition.”
Conely has contributed to the community in other ways as well. For example, when he heard that Kameren Johnson, a 9 year-old from Memphis, had been killed in a bus crash, he assisted the survivors with a $15,000 for a mental wellness retreat, counseling sessions, an arcade night, and medical bills. Conley said, “When you are an athlete in the NBA, you have a voice and power to reach a lot of people at many different levels. Starting from my rookie year, I sat down and wanted to know how I could get involved in the community and give back.”
The chosen winner of the 2018-19 Seasonlong NBA Cares Community Assist Award will be presented during the 2019 NBA Awards presented by Kia to be broadcast live on TNT on June 24. The NBA and Kaiser Permanente will subsequently donate $25,000 to the winner’s charity of choice.
Of course, the NBA playoff motto “win or go home” doesn’t quite apply to the Community Assist Award voting. Even the nine players who end up not winning the award will have won in various ways, having known that they have contributed positively to people’s lives. That’s certainly worth much more than a whole lot of dimes.
