NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Olympic gymnastics legend Simone Biles were named best male and female athletes at the ESPYS on Wednesday night.
Gilgeous-Alexander capped a dominant season by leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to an NBA championship last month, also earning league MVP and scoring champion honors.
“It’s a dream come true – and for dreams to come true, it takes a village,” he said during his acceptance speech, thanking his wife, parents, brother and close supporters. “Those names might not mean much to you, but to me they mean everything.”
Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, earned the evening’s first award – best championship performance – for her showing at the Paris Games, where she won three gold medals and one 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, received the best comeback award for overcoming two rare kidney diseases. She brought one of her doctors to the show.
Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award from point guard Russell Westbrook.
Robertson was president of the NBA Players Association during a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the league in 1970. The case led to sweeping reforms in free agency and draft rules and ultimately helped increase player salaries across the NBA.
The 86-year-old Robertson, a 12-time All-Star known as "The Big O" during his playing days, was the first Black president of any professional sports labor 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.”
Comedian Shane Gillis hosted the show, which honors the past year’s top athletes and sports moments, but his opening monologue was met with mixed reactions.
Early on, he called out familiar faces in the Dolby Theatre crowd, including retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi. Gillis mistakenly referred to her as "Deanna," prompting the camera to catch Taurasi shaking her head without smiling. Gillis quickly corrected himself, saying, “My bad on that.”
He then turned to WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, who was not in attendance.
“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: fistfighting Black women,” he joked.
While some in the audience laughed, others appeared visibly uncomfortable.
Gillis continued for 10 minutes, delivering jokes about President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, whose sex trafficking investigation has embroiled the Justice Department and FBI.
His set drew mixed reactions on social media, with some calling him “hilarious” and others labeling the performance “cringey.”
Gillis’ early joke about former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, drew big laughs.
“A bookie is what Bill Belichick reads to his girlfriend before bedtime,” Gillis said. “They read The Very Horny Caterpillar, The Little Engine That Could But Needed a Pill First, and of course the classic Goodnight Boobs.”
The laughter thinned as the set progressed.
“He won six Super Bowls. He’s dating a hot 24-year-old. Maybe if you guys won six Super Bowls you wouldn’t be sitting next to a fat, ugly dog wife.”
Before exiting, Gillis acknowledged the awkwardness: “I see a lot of you don’t like me, and that’s OK. That’s it for me. That went about exactly how we all thought it was going to go. I don’t know why this happened.”
Taurasi and retired U.S. women’s football star Alex Morgan shared the Icon Award in recognition of their careers and lasting impact on sports.
The two touched their trophies in a celebratory 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 the generation before us did. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Taurasi, who retired in February after a 20-year basketball career, spoke about her parents, who immigrated from Argentina, and encouraged 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.”
Former athletes David Walters and Erin Regan received the Pat Tillman Award for Service, given to individuals who honor the legacy of the former NFL player and U.S. Army Ranger through service.
Walters, 37, won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and earned seven world championship medals. He now serves as a firefighter in Los Angeles.
Regan, 45, was a Wake Forest football player who played one professional season before joining the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Both helped battle deadly wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January.
An emotional Katie Schumacher-Cawley accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, joined on stage by her husband and children as the audience stood in ovation. The Penn State women’s volleyball coach was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in September but never missed a practice and became the first woman to lead a team to an NCAA national championship.
“Cancer changed my life, but it didn’t take it. It didn’t take my belief, it didn’t take my spirit, and it didn’t take my team,” she said.
Basketball standout Cameron Boozer and track and field star Jane Hedengren were named Gatorade’s best male and female high school athletes of the year.
Boozer will play for Duke this fall, following in the footsteps of his father, former NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer.
Hedengren will compete for BYU in her hometown of Provo, Utah.
