Since 1993, ESPN has hosted the sports world’s equivalent of the Oscars: the ESPY Awards. It has its problems. There have been many years where the nominees (and winners) have been infuriating, and having fans vote for the final winners doesn’t seem like very good selection criteria to me at all, but we have a pretty good candidate pool this year, and since this is the only awards show we get as sports fans, I may as well weigh in.
(Note: I’m skipping the individual sport categories like “Best NBA Athlete” that they don’t show on television anyway.)
Best Male Athlete
LeBron James, Miami Heat, NBA
Two of the other competitors (Aaron Rodgers, Justin Verlander) experienced a similar level of dominance in their respective sports, but were missing one thing: a ring to show for it at the end. I came the closest to voting for Justin Verlander because he won the American League Pitching Triple Crown, Cy Young Award, and MVP Award, but LeBron James won the NBA’s regular season Most Valuable Player and Finals Most Valuable Player awards. But the biggest reason to pick James? It isn’t often that the best player in his sport so dramatically rewrites the narrative of their career in a single season. When we look back on this sports year decades from now, we might not remember the regular season brilliance of Rodgers and Verlander, but we will definitely remember what LeBron James did.
Best Female Athlete
Brittney Griner, Baylor University, NCAA Basketball
Griner was dominant as she led her team to a perfect season and national championship and won pretty much every individual trophy there is to win in NCAA Basketball, making her the easy choice here. (I have to say, I’m a little frustrated that the candidate pool here didn’t include WNBA or NFPS professional athletes.)
Best Championship Performance
LeBron James, Miami Heat, NBA
With all due respect to David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals for his heroics in the NLCS and World Series, LeBron James took over the Miami Heat and the NBA by finally cashing in on his nearly limitless potential. This is the first time in his career that LeBron has indisputably been not only the most talented player in the NBA, but the best player in the NBA. His performance in the 2012 NBA Playoffs and (especially) 2012 NBA Finals erased any doubt.
Best Breakthrough Athlete
Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots, NFL
Another easy choice. Anthony Davis is going to be the first pick in the NBA draft and Robert Griffin III was the second round pick of the NFL draft, but they haven’t done anything against professional competition. Jeremy Lin was a Twitter sensation, but it’s questionable whether he’s going to continue to be a star with the Knicks if the team can’t play at a high level with him, Carmelo Anthony, and Amar’e Stoudamire on the court together. Gronk’s emergence as one of the best tight ends in football was key to the New England Patriots’ return to the Super Bowl, and there’s no reason to think he’s going to disappear anytime soon.
Best Record-Breaking Performance
Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints, NFL
I haven’t exactly hidden my feelings about the New Orleans Saints in light of the Bountygate scandal, and Drew Brees has been embarrassingly vocal in his coach and team’s defense, so you have to believe I would’ve picked anyone else here if I could justify it. But Brees’ breaking Dan Marino’s “unbreakable” single-season passing record is not only one of the most impressive record-breaking performances in recent years, it’s the only actual athletic feat on this list. The other three all deal with age (two career milestones and one “youngest winner” status), which don’t impress me nearly as much.
Best Upset
Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup, NHL
I badly wanted to pick Lehigh over Duke, but can we really count Duke getting bounced in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament as a “huge” upset anymore? Does it really surprise people? It seems to happen more often than not. The Kings, on the other hand, aren’t on this list because of one upset. They’re on this list because of four upsets, in seven-game series, in the playoffs. The entire reason every sport but football has multi-game series in the playoffs is to dramatically increase the odds of the best team winning. So how do you explain the 8th-seeded Los Angeles defeating the Western Conference’s #1, #2, and #3 seeded teams one after another and then hoisting the Stanley Cup? Let’s be honest: this is insane.
Don’t tell me I should vote for one of the two NCAA Tournament upsets (which we have dozens of every year) or the equally obligatory regular season college football upset over this. Just don’t.
Best Game
World Series Game 6, St. Louis Cardinals 10, Texas Rangers 9, MLB
This is easily the best candidate pool on the entire ballot (you can tell because they only bothered picking three games), and quite possibly the best “Best Game” candidate pool you’ll ever see. In addition to a great comeback by Kansas over rival Missouri in the last regular season conference play game the two will ever play, you have two games I recently described (here and here) as being sports-film worthy. The San Francisco 49ers divisional round win over New Orleans was easily one of the best NFL playoff games in years, but Game 6 of the 2011 World Series might well go down as the greatest World Series game of all time.
Best Moment
MLB Regular Season Ends
In a portent of the drama of the World Series, the old Wild Card format went out with a bang by delivering the most dramatic final day of regular season baseball ever. Four games decided two Wild Card races. Three of the four were decided in the ninth inning or extra innings. Two went into extra innings. Two were won by walk-off hits. One featured a seven-run comeback highlighted by A) a grand slam, B) a two-out, two-strike ninth inning game-tying home run, and C) a two-out, two-strike, extra innings walk-off home run. When the dust settled, the two largest regular season collapses (or comebacks, depending on your perspective) in baseball history were complete.
Best Coach/Manager
Tom Coughlin, New York Giants, NFL
Don’t laugh. Who are you going to pick? Erik Soelstra? Consider this: Coughlin has won both of his Super Bowls (two in five years) against Bill Belichick.
Best Comeback Athlete
Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions, NFL
This was pretty easily the most difficult decision on the ballot. Sidney Crosby missed 10 months due to concussions but came back as the most dominant player in the NHL. (More success in the postseason easily could’ve put this one over the top.) Maria Sharapova came back from a near career-ending injury to win the 2012 French Open (making her only the 10th woman to have at least one career victory in all four Grand Slam events) and regain her ranking as the number one tennis player in the world. Johan Santana came back from Tommy John Surgery to reestablish himself as one of the most dominant pitchers in the game, and pitched the first no-hitter in New York Mets history.
But Matthew Stafford came back from injury-plagued seasons to pass for over 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns, and lead the Detroit Lions (yeah, those Detroit Lions) to the playoffs for the first time since 1999. His comeback year was a double-wammy, because it was also a comeback (and breakthrough) year for what had been one of the most maligned franchises in professional sports.
Best Male College Athlete
Anthony Davis, University of Kentucky, NCAA Basketball
Andrew Luck might be the best NFL prospect since Peyton Manning, but Anthony Davis won the Wooden and Naismith Awards as Player of the Year in the regular season as well as the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player award en route to leading Kentucky to the National Championship.
Best Female College Athlete
Brittney Griner, Baylor University, NCAA Basketball
As already stated, Griner won every individual award there was to win en route to leading her team to a perfect season and national championship.
Best Team
Baylor Women’s Basketball
Was anyone else undefeated? Okay then.
