Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award
# Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award

The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate center. Following the success of the Bob Cousy Award which had been awarded since 2004, the award was one of four new awards (along with the Jerry West Award, Julius Erving Award and Karl Malone Award) created as part of the inaugural College Basketball Awards show in 2015. It is named after three-time NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Champion, three-time NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player, and three-time National Player of the Year Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The inaugural winner was Frank Kaminsky.

Luka Garza of Iowa is the only player to repeat as recipient of the award.

## Winners

| * | Awarded a National Player of the Year award: the Naismith College Player of the Year or the John R. Wooden Award |
| - | - |
| Player (X) | Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award |
| Season | Player | School | Class |
| 2014–15 | Frank Kaminsky* | Wisconsin | Senior |
| 2015–16 | Jakob Pöltl | Utah | Sophomore |
| 2016–17 | Przemek Karnowski | Gonzaga | Senior |
| 2017–18 | Ángel Delgado | Seton Hall | Senior |
| 2018–19 | Ethan Happ | Wisconsin | Senior |
| 2019–20 | Luka Garza | Iowa | Junior |
| 2020–21 | Luka Garza* (2) | Iowa | Senior |
| 2021–22 | Oscar Tshiebwe* | Kentucky | Junior |
| 2022–23 | Zach Edey* | Purdue | Junior |

## Winners by school

| School | Winners | Years |
| - | - | - |
| Iowa | 2 | 2020, 2021 |
| Wisconsin | 2 | 2015, 2019 |
| Gonzaga | 1 | 2017 |
| Kentucky | 1 | 2022 |
| Purdue | 1 | 2023 |
| Seton Hall | 1 | 2018 |
| Utah | 1 | 2016 |
