The sports world gets in on the red carpet act Wednesday when ESPN puts on the 2015 ESPY Awards, celebrating the best athletes, teams, moments and more from the preceding 12 months.
Charlotte native Stephen Curry will once again take on LeBron James when the two go head-to-head for the best male athlete award. The NBA champion from Davidson College and the Cleveland Cavaliers star are among nominees, along with the Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers and the Houston Texans' J.J. Watt.
(Don't let the headline fool ya; I say Lebron steals it!)
Serena Williams leads the list of nominees for best female athlete, which also includes UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, Connecticut basketball player Breanna Stewart and Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn.
Much as I'd like to see Stewart waltz off with this, largely because I too hail from Connecticut, I see Rousey snapping this one up. She has had quite the year, from starring in two of this summer's most highly-anticipated films, "Entourage: The Movie" and "Furious 7" (with the latter being a huge hit at the box office), to her looming women's bantamweight title-fight.
Rousey is the division champ, but takes on No. 1 contender Bethe Correia on August 1 on Pay-Per-View.
Hosting the ESPYs from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles will be comedian/actor Joel McHale, best known for being the resident "Soup" wisecracker and for his role as Jeff Winger on the television series Community.
Expect zingers aplenty. The over/under on Kardashian jokes, as far as I am concerned is fairly low, at three.
McHale joins a long line of comedians who have hosted the event, including Jimmy Kimmel, Rob Riggle and Seth Meyers.
The ESPYs will air for the first time on ABC this year, starting at 8 p.m. A countdown show for the ESPY Awards will air at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. Live streams of the event can be found at WatchESPN.
Previously confined to ESPN, this is quite a score for ABC. In addition to celebrity athletes, there is also music (Crown and the M.O.B., Nate Ruess of the band Fun), plus presenters from show-business (Britney Spears, Vince Vaughn, Kiefer Sutherland).
Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner gets the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
The selection of Jenner for the award, and the unknown about the Ashe selection process, has not surprisingly set off debates throughout social media and opinion pages, a barrage of positive and negative press for ESPN, the latter reaching its apex when NBC Sports commentator Bob Costas said last month that “it strikes me that awarding the Arthur Ashe to Caitlyn Jenner is just a crass exploitation play, a tabloid play."
Last year’s ESPY Awards drew 2.2 million on ESPN. The real bet here is what ABC's draw will be. Given that this is the network that broke Jenner's news, via its Diane Sawyer special, it could be a real coup. Or turn stalwart sports fans away.
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