ESPN ESPY Preview, Schedule, Hosts, Athletes: Which Stars Will Take Home Top Awards?
With the NBA and NHL seasons over, the NFL season still a couple months away and the MLB season being only half done, there's little to get excited about in sports right now.
Fortunately, ESPN has a solution, an awards show celebrating athletes, teams, coaches and more. It's called the ESPYs. ESPN started awarding ESPYs back in 1993 and has continued the show ever since.
An ESPY is an Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly award. From 1993 to 2004, ESPY winners were chosen only by fans. Now, they are chosen by sports experts as well.
This year's ESPYs will be held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. They will be hosted by Canadian rapper Drake.
Expected to be on hand to present the ESPYs to the winners are Jessica Alba, Jeff Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Victor Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Taye Diggs, Kevin Durant, Colin Kaepernick, Dan Marino, Floyd Mayweather, Jim Parsons, Danica Patrick, Jason Segel, Maria Sharapova, Kiefer Sutherland and Russell Wilson according to Jay Jay Nesheim of ESPN Mediazone.
Arguably the best award of Wednesday's show is Best Male Athlete. Peyton Manning is widely expected to receive the award in this category.
The Best Breakthrough Athlete contest between Richard Sherman (NFL, Seattle Seahawks) and Masahiro Tanaka (MLB, New York Yankees) is interesting. While Tanaka has had an excellent first half of 2014, Sherman's loud and intense gameplay as part of the Super Bowl Champion Seahawks team will give him this award.
The Best NBA Player will probably go to LeBron James. Even though his Heat couldn't fend off the Spurs in the NBA Finals, he's still the most popular player in the league and he averaged 27 points per game.
The Best NFL Player will go to Peyton Manning. He set records for most touchdowns (55) and passing yards (5,477).
The Best Male Tennis Player will probably go to Novak Djokovic. He had a 74-9 record in 2013 and was ranked No. 1 for most of the year.
For the Best Team award, there are six choices in multiple sports and leagues. Although the LA Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Boston Red Sox had great seasons, the Seattle Seahawks powerful defense and impressive handling of the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl will earn them this award.
For all the nominees, visit ESPN's ESPY page.
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