Athletes at the ESPYs Take a Stand
The powerful awards show made us cry at least four times. Maybe five.
In an awards show that is usually lighter, funnier and less meaningful than its more seasoned awards show siblings (Oscars, Grammys, Golden Globes), this year’s ESPYs were powerful. And they made us cry at least four times. Sure there were lighter moments by host John Cena and yes, there were awards — but mostly, the show positioned the sports world as ready, willing and able to have blunt conversations about key issues impacting our country and implore all of us not to shy from keeping the dialogue going to make change happen.
First, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James opened the show, saying the violence has to stop. In Dallas. Orlando. Everywhere. And the excuses not to do more have to stop. Athletes don’t have to necessarily focus on being role models, but instead use their vast resources to engage with their communities, make time in their busy schedules and to honor those before them — Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Arthur Ashe — by taking action. They stood up together to say we cannot leave the world the way it has become. The sports world has to show through words, actions and deeds that there is a better way.
The Arthur Ashe Courage Award was delivered via a creatively done and emotional video retrospective, where Michael B. Jordan served as the voice of 15-year-old Fulton High School football player Zaevion Dobson, telling the story as if the teen were looking back retelling his last day on earth after a hardscrabble life in Knoxville with his mom and two brothers. His last day was Dec. 17, 2015, the last day of school before Christmas break. He and his friends were sitting on the porch. They heard shots. He grabbed the two girls he was with and laid his body over them to shield them. Zaevion was killed. His mom and two brothers were introduced on the ESPYs stage by Steph Curry. In a powerful speech, his mom also shared that the boys’ 12-year-old cousin, coming home from a basketball game honoring Zaevion, was shot and killed in another drive-by.
The show also touched upon equal pay (through a speech by ESPN sports icon and retired U.S. Women’s Soccer player Abby Wambach, who stood side-by-side with fellow icons and retirees Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant). There was a moving tribute to Pat Summitt by Billie Jean King, followed by a retrospective of all of our lost athletes from the prior year. UConn’s Breanna Stewart called out for equal coverage of women’s sports and acclaim for male and female athletes while accepting her “Best Female Athlete” award.
“I know everyone in this room loves and supports women and girls in sports,” Breanna Stewart said to the packed Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. “Equality for all takes each of us making an effort. Thank you for this honor. And together, let’s be better.”
Winning the Jimmy V Perseverence Award was colorful TNT color commentator Craig Sager, who is battling leukemia with the most incredible attitude and spirit one could imagine. He was introduced by Vice President Joe Biden, and his story was told in another moving video, narrated by Ron Howard. His speech acknowledged his family and then his sports family, and told us all, “I will never give up.” Just like Jimmy V had told us.
Finally, there was a moving tribute to Muhammad Ali, by Chance the Rapper to close out the show. Ok, maybe we cried five times.
In related news, tonight at 8 ET, President Obama will host a Town Hall on race relations, justice, policing and equality, moderated by ABC News’ David Muir and ESPN’s Jemele Hill. The commercial-free show will be simulcast on ABC, Freeform, ESPN, ABC News Digital, Freeform Digital, Watch ESPN, Watch ABC, ABC Radio and Yahoo, as well as on ABC News’ YouTube channel and Facebook page. After tonight it’s abundantly clear that ABC/ESPN is ready to take a stand, too.
