John Wall wins NBA Cares Community Assist Award

Former Kentucky Wildcats star and Washington Wizards All-Star point guard John Wall has been named the recipient of the 2016 NBA Cares Community Assist Award.

Wall is the fifth-ever winner of the season-long award, which is accompanied by a $25,000 donation from Kaiser Permanente and the NBA to a charity of the recipient's choice. He will donate his winnings to the John Wall Foundation and the money will be donated for a new playground sponsored by the Bright Beginnings, Inc., in Washington, D.C.

Wall will also match the donation with his own money to a charity in his hometown which he will designate at a later date.

The other players nominated for this year's award include Victor Oladipo, Carmelo Anthony, Mike Conley, Davis, Andre Drummond, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Zach LaVine, Damian Lillard and former Wildcat Anthony Davis.

"I am honored and humbled to be selected as the 2016 Seasonlong NBA Cares Community Assist Award winner and would like to thank all the fans and my many friends who voted for me on social media," Wall said in a statement. "I am privileged to be in a position to better my communities in both Washington and Raleigh and I consider the outreach that I do to be the most rewarding part of being an NBA player."

Wall was recognized for his continuing efforts in the community with the season's first monthly honor in October. Wall's most notable efforts center on his 5-year-old friend DaMiyah Telemaque-Nelson, who passed away weeks before her 6th birthday.

Wall donated to research for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He sponsored the Miyah's Troupe: a team for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk in Washington. He's also donated backpacks filled with school supplies to 600 students in Washington, D.C., and his hometown of Raleigh, N.C.

Wall even donated $400,000 to a non-profit organization providing shelter, education and meals to homeless children and their families called D.C.'s Bright Beginnings.