Michael Jordan among 21 selected for Medal of Freedom honors

Former NBA star and current owner of the Charlotte Hornets, Michael Jordan, smiles at reporters in Chicago on Aug. 21, 2015. | Charles Rex Arbogas/AP file photo

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is honoring actors Robert DeNiro, Cicely Tyson, Tom Hanks and Robert Redford with the nation’s highest civilian honor.

They are among 21 people Obama plans to recognize with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Tuesday.

Robert Redford. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Honorees from the sports world include basketball players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan, along with veteran sports broadcaster Vin Scully.

Entertainers include Ellen DeGeneres, Diana Ross and Bruce Springsteen.

Other honorees are philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates, polymath physicist Richard Garwin, architect Frank Gehry, designer Maya Lin, “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels, attorney Newt Minow, mathematician and computer scientist Margaret H. Hamilton, and Eduardo Padrón, president of Miami Dade College in Florida.

Posthumous honors will go to Native American advocate Elouise Cobell and Rear Adm. Grace Hopper.

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