WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is to current basketball legend Bob Cousy with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in an Oval Workplace ceremony on Thursday.
Cousy, 91, performed for the Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1963, successful six league championships and the 1957 MVP title. The Bob Cousy Award, given to the nation’s greatest level guard in males’s faculty basketball, is called for him. He’s a member of the Naismith Memorial Corridor of Fame.
Cousy, who’s white, can be identified for talking out in opposition to racism. He was an ardent supporter of black teammates who confronted discrimination throughout the civil rights motion.
After hanging up his No. 14 jersey, the 13-time NBA All-Star went on to teach basketball at Boston Faculty.
The Medal of Freedom celebrates people for his or her ”particularly meritorious contribution to the safety or nationwide pursuits of the U.S., to world peace, or to cultural or different important public or personal endeavors.”
Cousy is the second Celtics participant to be awarded the Medal of Freedom, following his former teammate Invoice Russell, who acquired the distinction in 2011 from President Barack Obama.
Cousy would be the second Medal of Freedom recipient this yr. Trump offered the award to golfer Tiger Woods in Could.
Cousy is the 10th honoree underneath Trump, who’s Cousy’s candidate of selection within the 2020 presidential election.
In a current interview with NBA.com, Cousy described himself as politically average. He mentioned that though he disagrees with a number of the president’s actions, he plans to vote for Trump subsequent yr.
Cousy supported Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in 2016.