{"id":69029,"date":"2025-07-17T05:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T05:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/69029\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T05:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T05:01:10","slug":"shai-gilgeous-alexander-and-simone-biles-win-top-honors-at-espys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/69029\/","title":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Simone Biles win top honors at ESPYS"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> and Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles<\/a> won as best male and female athletes at the ESPYS on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the NBA championship last month while piling up hardware as league MVP and scoring champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true and for dreams to come true it takes a village,\u201d he said, thanking his wife, parents, brother and others. \u201cThose names probably don\u2019t mean much but to me they mean everything.\u201d <\/p>\n

Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, claimed the night\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was very unexpected, especially in a category of all men,\u201d Biles said after kissing her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens.<\/p>\n

She beat out Stephen Curry, Freddie Freeman and Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n

Biles\u2019 Olympic teammate, Suni Lee, won the best comeback award for overcoming two rare kidney diseases. She brought one of her doctors to the show.<\/p>\n

Arthur Ashe Award for Courage<\/p>\n

Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage from point guard Russell Westbrook.<\/p>\n

Robertson was president of the NBA Players\u2019 Association at the time of a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the NBA in 1970. It led to an extensive reform of the league\u2019s strict free agency and draft rules and eventually to higher salaries for all players.<\/p>\n

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 labor union.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew there was work to do. There was a desperate need for players to have more career security, improved working conditions and other accommodations,\u201d he said. \u201cIn life, it\u2019s important to be persistent or as I have been called stubborn. Stubborn about what you believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Host Shane Gillis\u2019 awkward monologue<\/p>\n

Comedian Shane Gillis<\/a> \u2019 opening monologue as host of the show that honors the past year\u2019s top athletes and sports moments went over awkwardly.<\/p>\n

Early on, he called out various famous faces in the Dolby Theatre crowd, including retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi. Gillis said, \u201cGive it up for her\u201d after calling her \u201cDeanna.\u201d The camera showed an unsmiling Taurasi shaking her head. Gillis quickly caught his mistake, saying, \u201cMy bad on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gillis moved on to WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, who wasn\u2019t on hand. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she\u2019s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist fighting Black women,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

While some in the audience laughed, others appeared uncomfortable. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Gillis\u2019 performance drew mixed reviews on social media, with some calling him \u201chilarious\u201d and others \u201ccringey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gillis\u2019 initial joke about North Carolina coach Bill Belichick<\/a> and his 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson drew a lot of laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bookie is what Bill Belichick reads to his girlfriend before bed time,\u201d he said. \u201cThey read \u2018The Very Horny Caterpillar,\u2019 \u2018The Little Engine That Could But Needed a Pill First\u2019 and of course the classic \u2018Goodnight Boobs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But the laugher lessened as Gillis continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won six Super Bowls. He\u2019s dating a hot 24 year old. Maybe if you guys won six Super Bowls you wouldn\u2019t be sitting next to a fat ugly dog wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before closing it out, a smiling Gillis said, \u201cI see a lot of you don\u2019t like me and that\u2019s OK. That\u2019s it for me. That went about exactly how we all thought it was going to go. I don\u2019t know why this happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Icon Award<\/p>\n

Taurasi and retired U.S. national women\u2019s soccer team star Alex Morgan shared the Icon Award in recognition of their careers and major impact on sports.<\/p>\n

The women touched their trophies together in a toast.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission has always been very similar,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cWe fought to leave our game in a better place than where we found it just as a generation before us did. We\u2019re standing on the shoulders of giants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taurasi, who retired in February<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep going, don\u2019t wait for someone to hand you anything, outwork them, be loyal, bring that damn fire every day,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re proof you can do it. We did it our way. No shortcuts, no apologies, and no regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pat Tillman Award for Service<\/p>\n

Former athletes David Walters and Erin Regan accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service, given to those who have served in a way that honors the legacy of the former NFL player and U.S. Army Ranger.<\/p>\n

Walters, 37, earned a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was a seven-time world championships medalist. He\u2019s now a Los Angeles city firefighter.<\/p>\n

Regan, 45, was a Wake Forest soccer player who spent one season in the pros before retiring to join the Los Angeles County Fire Department. <\/p>\n

Both Walters and Regan fought the deadly and destructive wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January.<\/p>\n

Jimmy V Award<\/p>\n

An emotional Katie Schumacher-Cawley<\/a> accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance with her husband and children joining in the standing ovation. The Penn State women\u2019s volleyball coach was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in September. She continued coaching without missing a practice and became the first woman to guide a team to the NCAA national championship. <\/p>\n

\u201cCancer changed my life but it didn\u2019t take it. It didn\u2019t take my belief, it didn\u2019t take my spirit and it didn\u2019t take my team,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Gatorade Male and Female Players of the Year<\/p>\n

Basketball player Cameron Boozer and track and field athlete Jane Hedengren were named the Gatorade Best Male and Female Players of the Year.<\/p>\n

Boozer will be playing at Duke in the fall, following in the collegiate footsteps of his father, Carlos, a former NBA All-Star. <\/p>\n

Hedengren will compete for BYU in her hometown of Provo, Utah. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles won as best…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":69030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[48764,48767,1339,4442,20148,15634,2059,233,276,12111,12900,171,23782,6064,723,6323,2862,48765,15053,48760,4443,48766,298,224,1260,6326,3578,1574,1573,1268,48761,5217,48762,2830,1478,21596,3371,26203,48759,62,48763,3366,67,132,68,436,424,22795],"class_list":{"0":"post-69029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-2024-paris-olympic-games","9":"tag-alex-morgan","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-bill-belichick","12":"tag-black-experience","13":"tag-breast-cancer","14":"tag-ca-state-wire","15":"tag-caitlin-clark","16":"tag-california","17":"tag-compensation-in-sports","18":"tag-diana-taurasi","19":"tag-entertainment","20":"tag-erin-regan","21":"tag-fl-state-wire","22":"tag-florida","23":"tag-in-state-wire","24":"tag-indiana","25":"tag-jane-hedengren","26":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","27":"tag-jonathan-owens","28":"tag-jordon-hudson","29":"tag-katie-schumacher-cawley","30":"tag-kidney-disease","31":"tag-los-angeles","32":"tag-nba","33":"tag-nba-basketball","34":"tag-nba-finals","35":"tag-oh-state-wire","36":"tag-ohio","37":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","38":"tag-oscar-robertson","39":"tag-pa-state-wire","40":"tag-pat-tillman","41":"tag-pennsylvania","42":"tag-rory-mcilroy","43":"tag-russell-westbrook","44":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","45":"tag-shane-gillis","46":"tag-simone-biles","47":"tag-sports","48":"tag-sports-retirements","49":"tag-stephen-curry","50":"tag-united-states","51":"tag-unitedstates","52":"tag-us","53":"tag-ut-state-wire","54":"tag-utah","55":"tag-wnba-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}