NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles won as best male and female athletes at the ESPYS on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.
Gilgeous-Alexander, of Hamilton, Ont., led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the NBA championship last month while piling up hardware as league MVP and scoring champion.
Watch Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Hamilton, Ont., hoist both the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy after winning the NBA championship, and the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Trophy.
Biles, an 11-time Olympic medallist, claimed the night’s first award, best championship performance for her efforts at the Paris Games. She won three golds and a silver while helping the U.S. win its first team title since 2016.
“That was very unexpected, especially in a category of all men,” Biles said after kissing her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens.
She beat out Stephen Curry, Freddie Freeman, and Rory McIlroy.
Biles’ Olympic teammate, Suni Lee, won the best comeback award for overcoming two rare kidney diseases. She brought one of her doctors to the show.
Robertson presented with Arthur Ashe Award for Courage
Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage from point guard Russell Westbrook.
Robertson was president of the NBA Players’ Association at the time of a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the NBA in 1970. It led to an extensive reform of the league’s strict free agency and draft rules and eventually to higher salaries for all players.
The 86-year-old Robertson, a 12-time All Star known as The Big O during his career, was the first Black president of any sports labour union.
“I knew there was work to do. There was a desperate need for players to have more career security, improved working conditions and other accommodations,” he said. “In life, it’s important to be persistent or as I have been called stubborn. Stubborn about what you believe in.”
Shane Gillis draws mixed reactions
Comedian Shane Gillis’s opening monologue as host of the show that honours the past year’s top athletes and sports moments went over awkwardly.
Early on, he called out various famous faces in the Dolby Theatre crowd, including retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi. Gillis said, “Give it up for her” after calling her “Deanna.” The camera showed an unsmiling Taurasi shaking her head. Gillis quickly caught his mistake, saying, “My bad on that.”
Gillis moved on to WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, who wasn’t on hand.
“When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she’s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist fighting Black women,” he joked.
While some in the audience laughed, others appeared uncomfortable.
Gillis plowed on for 10 minutes, with jokes about President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, whose sex trafficking investigation has roiled the Justice Department and FBI.
Gillis’ performance drew mixed reviews on social media, with some calling him “hilarious” and others “cringey.”
Taurasi, Morgan share Icon Award
Taurasi and retired U.S. national women’s soccer team star Alex Morgan shared the Icon Award in recognition of their careers and major impact on sports.
The women touched their trophies together in a toast.
“Our mission has always been very similar,” Morgan said. “We fought to leave our game in a better place than where we found it just as a generation before us did. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Taurasi, who retired in February after a 20-year basketball career, mentioned her parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina. She also had words for the next generation.
“Keep going, don’t wait for someone to hand you anything, outwork them, be loyal, bring that damn fire every day,” she said. “We’re proof you can do it. We did it our way. No shortcuts, no apologies, and no regrets.”
