Former Jefferson Countian Bill Bradley, 81, a two-time NBA champion and former U.S. senator, was among 20 people who recently were awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal.
President Joe Biden presented Bradley, who grew up in Crystal City, and the other recipients with awards at the White House on Jan. 2.
The Presidential Citizens Medal is awarded to citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. It is the second-highest civilian award in the U.S., second to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Former President Richard Nixon established the award on Nov. 13, 1969.
“Raised in small-town Missouri, Bill Bradley showed a dedication to basketball that would define his courage, discipline, and selflessness,” according to a written statement from the White House. “A two-time NBA Champion and Hall-of-Fame New York Knick, he served three terms as a United States senator from New Jersey and was a candidate for president, advancing tax reform, water rights, civil rights, and more, while still today seeking to deepen our common humanity with humility and heart.”
On Monday, Bradley said President Biden called before Christmas to tell him he was receiving the award.
“I was very honored by that,” Bradley said. “We’ve been friends about 50 years.”
He said the citation for the award states he grew up in a small town in Missouri.
Bradley was an Olympic Gold medalist and national College Player of the Year and spent 10 years as a forward for the New York Knicks, winning two NBA titles. He is a graduate of Princeton and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He received the Stan Musial Lifetime Achievement Award for Sportsmanship in 2023.
He served for 18 years as a U.S. senator representing New Jersey, from 1978 to 1996. On Sept. 7, 1999, Bradley, a Democrat, announced his candidacy for president of the United States. He made the announcement from Crystal City High School, but later withdrew his campaign and supported then-Vice President Al Gore, who lost the election to George W. Bush.
Bradley has written seven books on topics ranging from basketball, to politics, culture and economics, all of which were New York Times bestsellers.
He said Crystal City was a good place to grow up and talked quite a bit about his hometown in his autobiographical one-man show called “Rolling Along,” which he said is available to view on YouTube.
His cousin, Susan (Bond) Faith of Crystal City, said Bradley lives in New York and still works for Allen & Company LLC, a small investment banking firm where he has been managing director since 2001.
Bradley also hosts “American Voices,” a weekly show on SiriusXM radio that “celebrates the goodness of the American people.”
Faith said Bradley worked hard on the Biden campaign and then the Kamala Harris campaign.
She said Bradley certainly deserves the awards he has received, including the recent Presidential Citizens Medal.
“He’s always been an outstanding person in terms of caring about people who didn’t have opportunities or advantages in life,” she said.
Faith said while Bradley was a Senate intern, he was present in the Senate chamber when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, adding that he was a driven, ambitious person who never lost sight of the fact he could help the less fortunate.
“That’s one reason he certainly deserves the award,” she said.
While serving in the U.S. Senate, Bradley did a lot of reaching across the aisle, working with both parties, Faith said.
She said he worked with former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt to overhaul the federal tax code.
“That was certainly a breakthrough at the time,” she said.
Despite all his success, Bradley has remained a humble and caring person, Faith said.
“He’s a very empathetic person and really gives of himself and he has not slowed down one bit in all these years,” she said.
The 19 other Presidential Citizens Medal recipients this year included former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, both of whom led the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021; former U.S. Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del.; former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; Mary Bonauto (same-sex marriage advocate); Frank Butler Jr. (who introduced new standards for tourniquet use); Diane Evans (founder of Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation); Joseph Galloway (one of the most respected war correspondents of his era); former U.S. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (women’s rights); former U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy; Louis Lorenzo Redding (civil rights activist); Bobby Sager (photographer); Collins Seitz (civil rights); Eleanor Smeal (human rights); Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi (human rights); Thomas Vallely (established Fulbright University Vietnam); Frances Visco (breast cancer research advocate); Paula Wallace (founded Savannah College of Arts and Design) and Evan Wolfson (marriage equality).
According to the White House statement, Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others and the country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.