ESPY Awards 2019: List of Nominees and Predictions for Event's Top Categories
Who is the best male athlete in all of sports? Who is the best female athlete? And which championship-winning team is the greatest?
Those categories among others have been voted on by fans for weeks, and on Wednesday, the winners will be decided at the 2019 ESPY Awards, hosted by actor/comedian Tracy Morgan.
On a rare off-day for all four major professional sports leagues, the ESPYs help fill the void during MLB's All-Star break.
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Here is everything you need to know ahead of this year's ESPYs, as well as some predictions for this year's major awards.
ESPY Awards Information
Where: Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles
When: Wednesday, July 10 at 8 p.m. ET
Watch: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN
List of Nominees: Award Finalists
Predictions
Best Male Athlete
As expected, three of the nominees for this award won an MVP Award in his respective sport in the past year.
Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts won American League MVP at the end of the 2018 MLB season, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes won NFL MVP in 2018, and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo won NBA MVP for the 2018-19 season.
The other nominee? That's golfer Brooks Koepka, who has won three major tournaments since the start of 2018, which includes his second PGA Championship victory earlier this year.
So, it's a stacked group, all of whom have arguments to be this year's Best Male Athlete recipient.
But something that can separate a player is a historic achievement, and that's what Mahomes accomplished for the Chiefs last year. He became only the third quarterback in NFL history to throw 50 touchdown passes in a season, joining Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
That's elite company. And that's going to help Mahomes, who made unbelievable highlight-reel plays regularly, win the Best Male Athlete ESPY for the first time.
Best Female Athlete
Two of this year's nominees are former winners of the award—WNBA player Breanna Stewart, who won in 2016, and gymnast Simone Biles, who won in 2017. But they have stiff competition that could prevent either from becoming a two-time winner in soccer player Alex Morgan and skier Mikaela Shiffrin.
In fact, one of those two will become a first-time winner.
And that will be Morgan, fresh off a Women's World Cup victory with the U.S. women's soccer national team.
Morgan helped the U.S. win its fourth Women's World Cup, including its second in a row. The U.S. dominated the competition, capping the tournament with a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands in the finals.
Along the way, Morgan played a key role while serving as one of the team's leaders. She had five goals and three assists in the team's opening group game against Thailand, which the U.S. won 13-0, and she also had a goal in a semifinal victory over England. Those performances, along with the team's popularity and success, will help Morgan capture this award for the first time.
Best Team
All of the teams nominated for this award won a championship in its respective sport this season. Because of that, it's difficult to pick one over the other.
But one team that is especially deserving—and which will rise above the other six nominees—is the NBA champion Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors aren't traditionally known as one of the NBA's stronger teams. They've improved in recent seasons, which has led to postseason success, but they only had one playoff series victory in their first 20 seasons, which began with the 1995-96 campaign.
In order to win the franchise's first NBA championship, Toronto had to take down the Milwaukee Bucks, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, and the Golden State Warriors, who had won three of the previous four NBA titles and were making their fifth consecutive NBA Finals appearance.
That was no problem for the Raptors. They captured the championship with NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard in his only season with the team before he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency.
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