NAISMITH BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCES THE PRESEASON WATCH LIST FOR THE 2026 MEN’S AND WOMEN’S CENTER OF THE YEAR AWARD

– Fan Voting Begins As we speak –

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. — The Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame introduced the 20 watch-list candidates for the 2026 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award and, in partnership with the Girls’s Basketball Coaches Affiliation (WBCA), the 20 watch-list candidates for the 2026 Lisa Leslie Award. 

 The annual Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, named after the Class of 1995 Corridor of Famer and three-time NCAA Champion, celebrates its twelfth yr by honoring the highest facilities in Division I males’s faculty basketball.

 The Lisa Leslie Award, now in its ninth yr, acknowledges the highest facilities in Division I ladies’s faculty basketball. It’s named after the three-time All-American, 1994 Nationwide Participant of the 12 months, and Class of 2015 Corridor of Famer. 

*Gamers can play their manner onto and off the checklist at any level within the 2025-26 season.

Followers can help their favourite participant by collaborating in Fan Voting beginning immediately, Friday, October 31, through hoophallawards.com. In early February, the watch checklist of 20 gamers for the 2026 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lisa Leslie Awards shall be narrowed to 10, after which in early March, to simply 5. Later in March, the 5 finalists shall be offered to Abdul-Jabbar, Leslie, and the Corridor of Fame’s choice committees, the place winners shall be chosen. The Choice Committees for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lisa Leslie Awards are composed of high males’s and ladies’s faculty basketball personnel, together with media members, head coaches, sports activities info administrators, and Corridor of Famers.

 The winner of the 2026 Abdul-Jabbar and Leslie Awards shall be offered on a to-be-determined date, together with the opposite 4 members of the Males’s and Girls’s Beginning 5. Extra awards being offered embody the Bob Cousy and Nancy Lieberman Awards (Level Guard), Jerry West and Ann Meyers Drysdale Awards (Taking pictures Guard), Julius Erving and Cheryl Miller Awards (Small Ahead), and the Karl Malone and Katrina McClain Awards (Energy Ahead).

 Earlier winners of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award are Ryan Kalkbrenner, Creighton (2025), Zach Edey, Purdue (2023-24), Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky (2022), Luka Garza, Iowa (2020-21), Ethan Happ, Wisconsin (2019), Angel Delgado, Seton Corridor (2018), Przemek Karnowski, Gonzaga (2017), Jakob Poeltl, Utah (2016), and Frank Kaminsky, Wisconsin (2015).

 Earlier winners of the Lisa Leslie Award are Lauren Betts, UCLA (2025), Cameron Brink, Stanford (2024), Aliyah Boston, South Carolina (2020-23), Megan Gustafson, Iowa (2019), and A’ja Wilson,South Carolina (2018).

 For extra info on the 2026 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lisa Leslie Awards and the most recent updates, go to hoophallawards.com and comply with @hoophallu, #KareemAward, and #LeslieAward on X and Instagram.

Concerning the WBCA: 

Based in 1981, the Girls’s Basketball Coaches Affiliation is the skilled affiliation for coaches of girls’s and ladies’ basketball in any respect ranges of competitors. The WBCA gives instructional assets that coaches want to assist make themselves higher leaders, lecturers, and mentors to their gamers; offers alternatives for coaches to attach with friends within the occupation; serves because the unifying voice of a various neighborhood of coaches to these organizations that management the sport; and celebrates these coaches, gamers, and different people who excel annually and contribute to the development of the game. For extra info, go to us on-line: WBCA.org, comply with @wbca1981, or name 1-770-279-8027.

Concerning the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame: 

Situated in Springfield, Massachusetts, town the place basketball was born, the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame is an unbiased nonprofit 501(c)(3) group devoted to selling, preserving, and celebrating the sport of basketball at each degree – women and men, novice {and professional} gamers, coaches, and contributors, each domestically and internationally. The Corridor of Fame museum is residence to greater than 475 inductees and over 40,000 sq. toes of basketball historical past. Practically 200,000 folks go to the Corridor of Fame museum annually to study in regards to the recreation, expertise the interactive reveals and take a look at their expertise on the Jerry Colangelo “Courtroom of Desires.” Greatest recognized for its annual marquee Enshrinement Ceremony honoring the sport’s elite, the Corridor of Fame additionally operates over 150 highschool and collegiate competitions yearly all through the nation and overseas. For extra info on the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame group, its museum, and occasions, go to hoophall.com and comply with @hoophallu.