NBA Lifetime Achievement Award

The NBA's Lifetime Achievement Award is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to a player who exemplified extraordinary success on and off the court in the NBA.

The inaugural recipient of the award was Bill Russell: a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer and 11-time NBA Champion with the Boston Celtics.^[1] The 2019 award was shared between two players: Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Every recipient of the award has been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame prior to receiving the award. As of 2019^[update], all winners have been American.