ESPYS 2015

Best Male Athlete
Nominees:  Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Aaron Rodgers, JJ Watt
Winner:  Stephen Curry
I would've picked Watt over A-Rod between the two football players, but I think this category comes down to a debate between the two NBA players.  The argument for James is the gaudy overall statistics that he put up, including leading both teams in the NBA Finals in points per game, rebounds per game, and assists per game.  He was also carrying a bruised and disjointed group of supporting players for most of the season, while carrying the expectations of an entire city along with him.  Curry, on the other hand, was simply an offensive juggernaut this year, leading the Warriors to a NBA-best 67 wins.  He won the regular season MVP, and was likely the overall playoff MVP, even though the NBA only awards the MVP of the NBA Finals.  Opponents were falling all over themselves to try and stop his deadly shooting and, even with hands in his face, he was still able to nail some huge shots.  Add in the NBA Finals win, and I think Curry deserves this award.

Best Female Athelte
Nominees:  Ronda Rousey, Breanna Stewart, Lindsey Vonn, Serena Williams
Winner:  Serena Williams
Williams has absolutely dominated women's tennis in the past year, winning the US Open, Australian Open, and French Open against three different finals opponents.  She has been ranked number one in the world for 200+ weeks and is the undisputed icon of women's tennis.  Ronda Rousey could make an argument to win this award, although I thought she had a better body of work last year.  She may have become more of a public figure, but based on on-court/in-ring performance, Williams was the better of the two.

Best Championship Performance
Nominees:  Madison Bumgarner, Lauren Haeger, LeBron James, American Pharoah
Winner:  Madison Bumgarner
This is probably the closest category at these ESPYS and I wouldn't be surprised if American Pharoah won, simply because of the Triple Crown factor.  I think some people may have forgotten the significance and difficulty of what Bumgarner did because it took place back in October, so let me refresh your memory.  As the Giants' ace in Game 1, he pitched seven innings of three hit, one run ball on the road to give the Giants a 1-0 lead in the series.  Then, with the series tied at 2-2, Bumgarner pitched a complete game, four hit shutout, to give the Giants a 3-2 series lead with the final two games played in Kansas City.  After a KC blowout in Game 6, Bumgarner was called in on two days rest to act as a reliever in the fifth inning with the Giants holding a 3-2 lead in the game.  Neither team scored the rest of the way as Bumgarner notched a five innning, two hit save to clinch the World Series for the Giants.  It was clutch, it was skillful, it was the best championship performance.

Best Breakthrough Athlete
Nominees:  Odell Beckham Jr., Mo'ne Davis, Cardale Jones, Jordan Spieth
Winner:  Odell Beckham Jr.
Another difficult category to choose from, but I have to go with Beckham.  I'll admit that I am biased here because the NFL is my favorite sports league, and I pay close attention to the Giants because they are in the same division as my favorite team (Dallas Cowboys).  While his catch against the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football is what really got the hype going, that was only the beginning of the story.  He broke multiple rookie and non-rookie NFL receiving records, he was voted to the Pro Bowl, was the offensive rookie of the year, is on the cover of this year's Madden, and did all that even though he missed the first four games of the season last year.  I suspect we'll be hearing Beckham's name a lot this coming season, along with the three other very worthy nominees in this category.

Best Upset
Nominees:  Georgia State over Baylor, Kansas City Royals win AL Pennant, Mississippi over Alabama
Winner:  Georgia State over Baylor
Not the strongest group of nominees this year, but the Georgia State game was awesome to watch.  GSU was a semi-popular upset pick to begin with because of NBA prospect RJ Hunter and Louisville transfer Kevin Ware.  That said, Baylor was a three seed for a reason and led by 12 with two and a half minutes left to play.  GSU had played them tough, but it looked like this was a Cinderella story that would not happen.  Then, in the final minutes, Hunter came alive and scored 12 points in the final 2:39, including the game winning three pointer with three seconds left, to give the 14th seeded Panthers the win.  It was everything you could want in a classic NCAA Tournament game...unless you're a Baylor Bears fan.

Best Game
Nominees:  A's vs Royals (AL Wild Card), Spurs vs Clippers Game 7 (Western Conference Quarterfinals), Seahawks vs Patriots (Super Bowl)
Winner:  Seahawks vs Patriots
Could it have been anything else?  With all due respect to the other four teams nominated, this game wasn't just one of the best this year, but one of the best of all time.  If this game doesn't win this category, then I'm boycotting the ESPYS for the rest of eternity.  I would, however, like to add in a write in nominee for one of my favorite games that didn't make ESPN's nominations.  I thought the Elite Eight game between Kentucky and Notre Dame was outstanding.  It was back and forth action with Kentucky's undefeated season on the line.  Kentucky's Andrew Harrison had to make two clutch free throws with six seconds left to seal the victory in my personal favorite game from the tournament.

Best Comeback Athlete
Nominees:  Rob Gronkowski, Alex Rodriguez, Derrick Rose, Lindsey Vonn
Winner:  The Gronk
After a nasty ACL and MCL injury in 2013, Gronk returned to dominant form in 2014, easily outclassing every other tight end in the NFL.  He led all tight ends in receiving yards, and even proved to be a capable blocker, which is something that cannot be said for other elite pass catching tight ends (Jimmy Graham, Julius Thomas).  He is a matchup nightmare, and for that reason, is one of the most unstoppable forces in the NFL along with JJ Watt.  The comeback from injury is complete, now expect the domination to continue.

Best Coach
Nominees:  Geno Auriemma, Bill Belichick, Steve Kerr, Mike Krzyzewski, Urban Meyer
Winner:  Urban Meyer
While all five coaches won a championship this year, I think Meyer should win this easily.  And that's coming from someone that has disliked Ohio State all my life.  Consider that Auriemma has the best women's basketball team year in and year out, Belichick had the Golden Boy and Gronk, Kerr had the Splash Brothers, Coach K had Jahlil Okafor and Justice Winslow, and Meyer had a third string QB.  While he turned out to be a stud, it takes great coaching to have a third string QB ready when the two QBs ahead of him had already excelled.  Not only that, but he had to conquer the pro style of Nick Saban's Alabama squad, only to get the Heisman Trophy Winner and the faster-than-a-speeding-bullet Oregon team.  He was able to make adjustments, put his players in positions to excel, and won the National Championship.

Best Team
Nominees:  Chicago Blackhawks, San Francisco Giants, New England Patriots, Golden State Warriors, UConn Women's Basketball, Duke Basketball, Ohio State Football
Winner:  Golden State Warriors
As of this writing, they don't have this category posted for some reason.  I think it's because the Women's World Cup is still going on and they might want to include the US Women's Team if they win it all.  With that in mind, I chose the teams I could remember that won a title, so I apologize if I missed someone important, though I don't think I did.  Regardless of if the US wins the World Cup, I'm still going with the Warriors.  They got close to the 70 win mark with 67 of them and only lost a ridiculous two games at home all regular season.  Curry was the MVP and leader of an attack that averaged 110 points per game.  It was a shooting display every night they hit the floor and brought a lot of attention back out west after the Lakers went in the tank.  They swept the Pelicans, battled back from a 2-1 series deficit against the Grizzlies, beat the Rockets in five, then came back from another 2-1 series deficit against the Cavs to win the NBA Title.

Don't forget, the ESPYS take place July 15th at 8pm Eastern.  Click here to vote for your favorite athletes and teams!

Matty O