|
by Julian Spivey It doesn’t take much talent to win a race like Austin Dillon did on Sunday night, which is good for him because, based on the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, Dillon was only the 32nd most talented driver out of the 34 full-time drivers. On a two-lap overtime run at the end of Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Va. Dillon, who was likely going to win the race under green when a late caution involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece came out, was passed on the overtime restart by Joey Logano. Knowing that a win was the only way Dillon could clinch a Cup Series playoff spot for his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, Dillon made the last-ditch decision to wreck Logano to win the race. He didn’t try to pass Logano. He didn’t try the widely believed to be fair “bump-and-run” move on Logano. He just aimed the front bumper of his Chevrolet at the back bumper of Logano’s No. 22 Penske Racing Ford and sent him spinning around and wrecking into the outside wall. The contact between Dillon and Logano was enough to both slow Dillon down and push him up the track, allowing the third-place driver of Denny Hamlin to pass Dillon but as soon as that happened Dillon hooked Hamlin in the right rear of his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, widely considered the most dangerous move in the sport, and put him into the wall. With Dillon having demolished any car in his path, he crossed the finish line in first place, was granted the victory, and clinched a playoff berth. It was a miracle there was no post-race incident involving Dillon, Logano, Hamlin and pit crews for all three teams. In post-race interviews, multiple drivers used the word “chickenshit” to explain Dillon’s method of racing and winning, and it’s pretty appropriate. I’ve never seen a more disgusting, despicable, unsportsmanlike, cowardly and chickenshit way for a driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race in 23 years of watching this sport. The fact NASCAR allowed the entire thing to stand in the immediate aftermath of the race has drivers and fans alike challenging the sport in serious ways, no more than 54-time Cup Series race winner Hamlin, now one of the sport’s elder statesmen, who told Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass post-race: “Where’s the line, Bob? I mean, that’s the thing. We have rules to prevent ridiculous acts but it’s been a long time since those rules have been enforced.” He added: “We’re never ever going to get taken seriously as a sport because we have no real officiating.” Hamlin is right. NASCAR has rules it can enforce in situations like this that can penalize aggressive driving, and we’ve seen the sport enforce them in lower series this season in far less egregious on-track incidents than what Dillon did on the final lap at Richmond. Maybe NASCAR views the final lap as an “anything goes” scenario? But shouldn’t the rules matter the most when the most is on the line? NASCAR not penalizing Dillon for his egregious overaggressive driving on the final lap and his reaping massive rewards as a result makes the whole sport look like a joke. It should’ve been an easy call for NASCAR to make and they blew it. Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition, told the media about an hour after Sunday’s race that the sport would review video, audio and data to determine if any penalties would be announced as a result of the final lap and any such penalties would be announced on Tuesday, the day of the week NASCAR typically announces such penalties. But I wouldn’t expect anything major to come out of that review. It would be unprecedented for the sport to take a win away from a driver two days later. And so, NASCAR has potentially set another dangerous precedent in that a driver doing anything at all to clinch their way into the playoff field is fair game even if it’s the most cowardly, chickenshit way of ever doing so.
0 Comments
by Julian Spivey 
Who do you think was the best athlete at the 2024 Paris Olympics? by Julian Spivey  Screenshot There were many fantastic Olympic moments and feats that I saw on Friday, August 9, at the Paris Games, but the moment that made me raise an eyebrow in surprise and say, “Let’s go!” didn’t come from one of the athletes but NBC Sports track & field reporter Lewis Johnson. Johnson has held the position of track and field sideline reporter, essentially, throughout the athletics portion of the Games. He’s worked every Olympics, both Summer and Winter, for NBC Sports since the 2000 Sydney Games. He has interviewed the American athletes following their events — both when they brought home the gold and on Friday night when once again they faltered spectacularly in an event they’ve continuously shot themselves in the foot at in the last two decades of the Olympic Games. On Friday night, the American men were tasked with the men’s 4x100m relay, considered one of the biggest track events of the Olympics, an event they have struggled in time after time over the last few Olympics with disqualifications due to dropping the baton, other transfer issues and a doping ban that took away a silver medal from the 2012 London Games. The men’s relay team has failed to medal in the 4x100m since the 2004 Athens Games. Since 1995, the U.S. has had 11 baton errors that have resulted in disqualifications, according to NBC News. The men’s relay team was considered the favorites to win gold in Paris but started at a disadvantage when Noah Lyles, gold medalist of the men’s 100m earlier in the week, had to be scratched from the event with Covid. His replacement was Christian Coleman. Coleman led off the event, and the baton transfer issue occurred at the end of his stint when Kenny Bednarek, the second stint runner, took off, and Coleman couldn’t catch him. Bednarek almost had to come to a complete stop to take the transfer, and the costly error wound up with the USA crossing the line in seventh place in the event, outside of the medals. The finishing position didn’t matter anyway, as a post-race review revealed the Coleman-Bednarek exchange took place outside the exchange zone, resulting in this team’s disqualification. The job of a journalist isn’t merely to ask questions. It’s to get answers. It’s to ask those questions during the good and bad times. You can’t just get the smiles and happy tears moments. Doing so would essentially make NBC Sports public relations for Team USA. So often, in sports journalism, journalists ask questions, and they receive non-answer answers from athletes—statements that don’t really say anything and don’t answer the questions as asked. This has somewhat trained sports fans to see the act of a post-game/event interview as just a formality. It's a “how was the game?/It was good” moment between media and athletes that does nothing to provide substance to the broadcast we’re watching. Nobody expects journalists to hold athletes to the same level of questioning they would expect for politicians—though journalists won’t even demand things like basic facts from politicians anymore—but that’s another story for another time. When a question is asked, it’s reasonable for a journalist to want a real, true, authentic answer and, if they don’t get one, to keep pushing for it. That’s what Johnson did on Friday night. He opened his interview by asking Coleman what happened during the baton exchange, a valid question viewers should want to know the answer to. Coleman gave a typical athlete non-answer answer. “In the heat of the moment, we just didn’t get it done today.” OK, we saw that. We know that. The question was, “What happened” to cause that? Johnson followed up with a more specific question to attempt to pull an actual answer from Coleman. “Why didn’t you catch up to Kenny [Bednarek] there?” Coleman: “We just didn’t get it done.” Johnson: “But you have to explain, don’t you, exactly why, after all the practices, that exchange didn’t happen?” At this point, I truly noticed the interview and realized this was a journalist who did not accept the stereotypical athlete's babble. I literally blurted out from my couch, “Good job, Lewis!” It’s fair of Johnson to ask because he’s still trying to get to the truth behind the error, but no, an athlete isn’t obligated to answer the question. But to not do so could make them look poorly in the eyes of the viewer – though it should be noted the overwhelming online response was that Coleman and his teammates took the interview admirably and Johnson was “unprofessional” (I’ll get to that in a moment). Coleman responded: “It just didn’t happen. It wasn’t our day today.” Johnson continued to ask specific questions. “Did Kenny leave early?” Coleman: “I think as a team, we just didn’t get it done today.” And that was the end of the interview because you can only ask so many times before ultimately giving up because, as I said, an athlete isn’t obligated to answer. I knew immediately that Johnson was going to be hammered online. Journalists are among the most hated professionals in this country – not without some good reasons but also mostly misguided people who don’t understand the profession. Many don’t realize there’s more to it than asking a question and accepting whatever answer is given. Many online called Johnson’s interview unprofessional. Many viewed it as him trying to get Coleman to throw his teammate Bednarek “under the bus,” as if a “what happened” question could be wrong. Do we not remember our Five Ws (Who, What, Why, When & Where)? Some online even called for Johnson to be fired by NBC Sports. But this is what actual journalism looks like, and it’s unfortunate that so many sports journalists specifically sit back and accept the non-answer answers they’re so frequently given. by Julian Spivey  Screenshot If there is something I’ve learned from watching the last few Olympics, it’s that you can’t criticize American Olympian heroes, not even in the slightest. Not even when asking others on your platform a question that might result in a negative answer. American Olympic viewers don’t want to think of their Olympian heroes as anything less than perfect, maybe not so much as athletes, but as people. It’s truly a positive response. It’s nice to want to go to battle for people even when their athletic performance might not be up to their best. To see them as human because they are. They might have things going on off or outside the court, mat, pool, etc., affecting their performance. But as someone who has followed sports for a lifetime, it’s weird to see this response from fans. I’m used to the cutthroat type of sports fan. The kind that when an athlete isn’t perfect, they’ll let you and, often even them, know about it in their reactions, either with boos at the venue or with tweets/comments on social media. Often, this vitriol is dumb, as in the basketball fans who believe LeBron James is a bum despite a resume that rivals most of the greatest players of all time in his sport. Sometimes, it’s warranted. Example: Why isn’t Clayton Kershaw the same pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the postseason as he is in the regular season? As long as sports fans don’t go out of their way to completely bash or belittle an athlete, these criticisms are valid, just as they would be if one were to review the performance of musicians, actors and authors. It’s just a part of public life. So, when I ask our followers on our various social media pages a question like: Has American swimmer Caeleb Dressel negatively affected his Olympic legacy with his poor performance in the 2024 Paris Olympics after the defending champion failed to medal in the men’s 50m freestyle and failed to even qualify for the final in the men’s 100m butterfly I’m dumbfounded to receive replies like: “No, it doesn’t and you should be ashamed for posting this” as I did from one person on our Threads post. I’m dumbfounded because if I were to ask a question like: Is Atlanta Braves slugger Matt Olson letting his team down amidst a season slump? I wouldn’t receive a response like: “He’s trying his best. Leave him alone.” I think some of it has to do with the big USA and American flag on their Olympic uniforms, too. There’s a bit of that “how dare you say something bad about America!” uber-patriotism about the Olympic games. It may also be that the Olympic Games attract a more casual sports fan than the professional and collegiate sports we watch on an annual basis. But sports is and has always been graded on performance. Athletes are under pressure. It’s part of the game, part of the competition. These games and events are win-or-lose, and athletes are scored on their performance. We can feel empathy and sympathy for them when they don’t do well, but they are graded on how they perform in their field. Performing poorly on your sport’s biggest stage will affect how some view one’s legacy. And for the many people who responded that Dressel had stepped away from the sport for mental health purposes, I can feel empathy and sympathy for him. But Simone Biles also stepped away from gymnastics for multiple years (longer than Dressel was away from swimming), and she returned to the biggest stage and furthered her legacy as the G.O.A.T. in her sport. She’s already won two gold medals and will likely win more. So, if I can celebrate Biles's comeback furthering her legacy, I should be able to knock Dressel down a notch or two for not doing the same. Nothing is ever going to keep Dressel from being an Olympic legend. Nine gold medals have clinched his spot among the greatest in his respective sport and the Olympic Games. But athletes aren’t free from criticism simply because they’re competing for their country. by Julian Spivey I’ve been having a problem over the first week of the 2024 Paris Olympics that I’m sure many people can identify with, especially those who work full-time jobs during the day. Spoilers. Time zone differences have always been a problem for people who want to watch the Olympics, but in today’s world of 24/7 access to the Internet, news, and social media, it’s harder than ever to avoid spoilers for Olympic events before you’ve had the chance to see them. The Games are only halfway through, and I’ve already known the results of many of the most significant events before sitting down in the evening to watch what I’ve recorded on YouTube or catch up on via Peacock from earlier in the day. The days of being able to go into the evening telecast of whatever network is broadcasting the Olympics without being spoiled are over. Back then, you had two ways of finding results: watching the evening broadcast or waiting for the next day’s newspaper. Now the results are all over the Internet the moment the events end. There are some plusses, though, if you have the ability to you can see any and every Olympic event live. I completely understand this is a first-world problem of the highest order. If I could just shut my phone off for the day, there would be no problems. But how many of us, especially with our shortened attention spans – much of which have been caused by our phones and the Internet/social media – can bring ourselves to do that? So, the question is … in this modern world of direct-to-audience media, should publications, websites, etc., cater to their audience by time-delaying their coverage of Olympic events? In theory, it would be great. We’ve been doing it on our social media feeds for this website, but that’s more out of necessity. We cannot see many of these events live because this isn’t our full-time gig. When the Olympics are held in Los Angeles in 2028, you can bet we’ll be timelier with our coverage. The answer is no. The media shouldn’t delay its coverage because some of us haven’t had the chance to tune into these events live. One of the central tenets of journalism is that it be timely. That used to mean getting it out in the newspaper the next day. Later, it meant making the nightly or evening news. Once the Internet was created, that meant once the event ended. The Internet has led to a lot of bad journalism. Sometimes, publications/websites/journalists try to get the story out so fast that they make mistakes or are just plain sloppy. However, delaying content would be unethical. As sports fans, we must be more vigilant about avoiding these spoilers. It’s entirely on us, and that’s how it should be. by Julian Spivey The culture wars have come to the Olympics because it seems a large sect of American conservatives want to express their displeasure with any and everything that doesn’t sit right with their specific brand of Christianity that you won’t often find in the actual Bible. The kind that lets them vote for a man for President of the United States that would surely make Jesus weep. The latest problem for this set of right-wingers – you know, the crazy Marjorie Taylor Greene type - was a particular moment in the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday (July 26), which they took to be a mockery of The Last Supper, the mural painted by Leonardo da Vinci representing the scene of the last supper between Jesus and the Twelve Apostles, as told in the Gospel of John. The opening image of the Opening Ceremony skit briefly resembles the painting but was intended to be a fashion show-type depiction of an ancient Greek Bacchanal with the Greek God of fertility, Dionysus, later known as the god of wine and pleasure. As these culture warriors so often do, those looking to be offended saw what they wanted – yet another sign of the world gone woke. They took to their social media feeds and bitched and moaned about how the Paris Olympics made a mockery of Christianity with drag queens and nearly naked Smurf men instead of depicting cultures of the Greek – you know, the guys who created the Olympic games – and France, you know the guys hosting these games. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson tweeted: “Last night’s mockery of the Last Supper was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world who watched the open ceremony of the Olympic Games. The war on our faith and traditional values knows no bounds today.” Well, Mr. Johnson, you’re shocking and insulting to basic human decency and world history. Maybe you should do more research next time before looking like an idiot in front of the world — or were you just virtue signaling to your constituents (something you guys often claim others do)? I’m so tired of the so-called “culture wars” attempting to ruin everything. The only people battling this “war” are these folks on the right offended by everything. The rest of us are just trying to be who we are, live our lives, and have fun here and there. Try worrying about your life, traditions, and religion, and leave everyone else alone. And for those talking about how they’re boycotting the Olympics because they “mocked their God,” I say: Good. We didn’t want you buzzkills hanging around anyhow.” by Julian Spivey At the time of this writing, we’re about 14 hours away from the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, and I’m sure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can’t wait for the festivities and events to begin. There has been nothing but negative coverage for these games in the days leading up to the world’s biggest sporting event. There has been everything from cheating scandals and racist policies to animal abuse and sex criminals in the headlines over the last few days. Let’s run down some of these controversies and scandals. Perhaps the worst controversy facing the Olympics before the start of the games has been the revelation that the Netherlands included convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde on its beach volleyball roster. van de Velde was convicted in 2016 of raping a 12-year-old British girl whom he knew was underage. The Dutch volleyballer served four years in prison, which seems like an absurdly short amount of time for the rape of a child, and now represents his country, which apparently doesn’t care about the black eye it’s receiving over the public backlash in front of the world. The Netherlands allowing van de Velde to compete in the Olympics and the I.O.C.’s lack of action to prevent such a thing sends a horrible message to humankind that disgusting, disturbing, and illegal behavior matters little as long as your athletic talent might win a medal for your home country. van de Velde isn’t being allowed to stay in the Olympic athlete’s village during the games, probably because he’s a pedophilic sex offender and there are likely underage athletes at the games and has been advised not to speak with the media during the games. Hopefully, the fans in attendance will boo the ever-loving hell out of him during every beach volleyball event he’s in, and his Olympics will be short and torturous. Thanks to the Canadian women's soccer team, the Games hadn’t even begun before they had been embroiled in a cheating scandal. News came out a few days ago that the Canadian team had used drones to spy on the New Zealand squad’s closed practice sessions, as the two were to meet in the opening match of the Games. Initially, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and Canada soccer analyst Joseph Lombardi were sent home from the Games for their role in the cheating scandal. But on Thursday (July 25), the Canadian Olympic Committee removed the team’s head coach, Bev Priestman, from the Games and suspended her. Canada’s TSN reported on Thursday that the Canadian men’s and women’s teams have relied on drones to spy on competing teams' practices for years, including during the 2020 Tokyo Games, in which the women’s team won the gold medal. Integrity and fair competition are supposed to be among the most significant beliefs of the Olympic games. For that reason, the fact that the Canadian women’s team (the men’s team didn’t qualify for the event) hasn’t been disqualified from the Games is disappointing. Cheating of any kind has no place in the Olympics. Suspending the head coach isn’t enough for the Canadian women’s soccer team. Great Britain equestrian star Charlotte Dujardin, who has been described as the dominant dressage rider of her era by the U.K.’s Telegraph, pulled out of the Games less than a week before they began after video footage of her abusing a horse four years ago surfaced on the internet. According to USA Today, the video showed Dujardin aggressively whipping a horse’s hind legs 24 times during a coach session with another rider atop the horse. Dujardin, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in dressage, apologized for her actions and said she was “ashamed” and “what happened was completely out of character and does not reflect how I train my horses or coach my pupils,” which is always something that you have to wonder about as it’s only admitted after one is caught. I’m sure most equestrian athletes are training their horses appropriately. Still, it makes one wonder if the only Olympic sport featuring animals should be watched more closely by animal rights leaders. Paris and France must be excited about the world’s eyes being upon it for the next two weeks, but the situation has opened the eyes of the world to one of France’s most restrictive and, frankly, racist laws. France enforces a strict principle of laïcité, loosely translated as secularism, which relies on the division between private and public life regarding religion. Under this law, French state employees (of which athletes participating for their country fall) and school pupils are banned from wearing religious symbols and clothing in public. Laïcité might have some good in its intentions, essentially treating all folks as equals, but some religions, including Islam, require followers to wear garments such as hijabs or head scarves. France, home to Europe’s most significant Muslim minority according to Yahoo, includes French Muslim sprinter Sounkamba Sylla, who traditionally wears a hijab, among its Olympic athletes. Sylla would not have been able to walk in her home country’s Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday due to her hijab. On Thursday, an agreement was made between Sylla and the French Olympic Committee that would allow her to wear a cap covering her hair during the ceremony. However, the fact remains the country has a law that effectively discriminates against particular religions. I can’t wait for the Olympic Games to start on Friday because these Games need some good and positive moments because the week leading up to the world’s biggest sporting event has been one giant nightmare of, frankly, the worst humanity has to offer. by Eric Fulton & Julian Spivey
6. Editor's note: This article originally erroneously had Kylian Mbappe competing in the Olympic soccer tournament for his home country of France. He is not on the France Men's Soccer Olympic roster.
by Julian Spivey
I know that seeing something positive about a politician in an election year, particularly one as fraught as this one, might be eye-roll-inducing, but Iowa State Representative J.D. Scholten is our sports hero of the week for coming in in a pinch to pitch for his local independent league professional ballclub, the Sioux City Explorers, who were in desperate need of a pitcher. On Saturday (July 6), the 44-year-old Scholten, who represents District 1 in the Iowa House of Representatives, received a call from Explorers manager Steve Montgomery just 90 minutes before the first pitch of that evening’s game with the plea to help, as the team’s bullpen had been forced to cover 13 innings the two nights before. Its scheduled pitcher for Saturday had become ill. Scholten had been a star pitcher in Sioux City as a high schooler before going to college at the University of Nebraska, where he led the Cornhuskers in earned run average his senior year. Following college, Scholten bounced around in independent pro baseball leagues in seven countries, including some time on the mound for the Explorers. In 2022, Scholten became the District 1 representative for Iowa. He’s running for re-election this year. Helping out the local ball club in a pinch should be a good way to help win that re-election. Not only did Scholten pitch on Saturday, but he was terrific, pitching 6.2 innings on less than two hours notice and leading his team to an 11-2 victory against the Milwaukee Milkmen. It’s the kind of thing Hollywood movies are made of … maybe we’ll see it on the big screen someday?
In the half year we’ve been doing this sports hero and zero piece for The Word on Pop Culture we have featured some really bad folks as the sports zero of the week – racists, misogynists, dimwits, etc. I’ve said some harsh things about these sports zeroes, all justified in my mind. But sometimes you have to point the finger at yourself. Sure, what I did isn’t as bad as the Kansas City Chiefs kicker acting like all women belong at home in the kitchen, or Aaron Rodgers babbling on about whatever dumbass conspiracy theory of the week he has, or boxer Ryan Garcia last week offending virtually anybody and everybody … but I think it still puts me firmly in a sports zero of the week category of the fantasy sports competitor who isn’t paying enough attention to his fictional squad and it costs him dearly. So, what did I, Julian Spivey, do to deserve being this week’s sports zero? I failed to realize the Pittsburgh Pirates had a noon game on Thursday (July 11) and that the team’s phenom ace, Paul Skenes, sat on my fantasy team’s bench while having one of his and baseball’s most fantastic pitching performances this season. Skenes went seven innings without allowing a hit in Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers while striking out 11 Brewers. It was one of the most incredible pitching performances in Major League Baseball history by a rookie, and it was wasted on my fantasy squad, Hammerin’ Hank. If I lose this week’s matchup because of my fantasy faux-pas, I’ll have no one to blame but myself. Oh, by the way, as long as we’re giving out sports zeroes, can we also talk about removing a pitcher with a no-hitter after seven innings and 99 pitches because they’re on a pitch count? Baseball has gotten weak when it comes to babying its pitchers, leading to one of the game’s most exciting and rarest moments, the no-hitter, being impacted. It should be illegal to remove a pitcher with a no-hitter. by Eric Fulton & Julian Spivey The 32nd annual ESPY Awards will be held on Thursday, July 11, 2014 from the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. The telecast can be seen on ABC at 7 p.m. (CST) with re-runs on the ESPN networks. The ESPYs are a fan-voted award for the best in sports. Here are the winners we would like to see honored this year ...  Best Team: Nominees: Boston Celtics, Oklahoma Sooners Softball, UCONN Huskies Men’s Basketball, Las Vegas Aces, Michigan Wolverines Football, Kansas City Chiefs, South Carolina Gamecocks Women’s Basketball, Florida Panthers, Texas Rangers Our Winner: Boston Celtics You can pick the best team in sports a few different ways, and each way is a valid option. There is the most surprising team to win a title, which I believe would be the Texas Rangers in baseball. There’s the team amid a dynasty, which would be the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. And then there’s the best overall and most dominant team of their given sport, and, in my opinion, this year, that was the NBA champion Boston Celtics. The Celtics title felt like it was a few years in the making, and they thoroughly dominated the NBA this season, finishing 14 games better than the next-best team in the Eastern Conference and seven games better than the next-best team in the league. Their path through the NBA postseason seemed like a cakewalk as dominant as the team was. JS Best Athlete: Men’s Sports Nominees: Patrick Mahomes, Shohei Ohtani, Scottie Scheffler, Connor McDavid Our Winner: Shohei Ohtani Patrick Mahomes won his third Super Bowl in the last half-decade, Scottie Scheffler is on the biggest golf heater since the heyday of Tiger Woods and Connor McDavid does hockey well, I suppose, but there’s only one guy on this list who does everything in his sport and does it well, and that’s Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sure, he’s not pitching this season due to surgery, but he was one of the best last season for the Los Angeles Angels, made the biggest free agent splashes in the history of pro sports signing with the Dodgers, and continues to be one of the most feared hitters in the game. JS Best Athlete: Women’s Sports Nominees: Caitlin Clark, Coco Gauff, Nelly Korda, A’ja Wilson Our Winner: Caitlin Clark All of these women have had fantastic years. Still, there’s only one who has transformed an entire sport from more of a niche thing to one of the most talked about sports in the country, and that was what Caitlin Clark did for not only women’s college basketball but also the WNBA now that she’s playing professional. The all-time leading scorer in college basketball history was drafted by the Indiana Fever and is now in the midst of one of the greatest rookie seasons in the history of that league. This is a no-brainer. JS Best Recording-Breaking Performance: Nominees: Christian McCaffrey scores a touchdown in 17-straight games, Caitlin Clark crowned NCAA All-Time Scoring Leader, Tara Vanderveer is winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, Max Verstappen wins a record 10th consecutive race Our Winner: Caitlin Clark All of these were wonderful record-breaking achievements but for Caitlin Clark to not only become the all-time leading scorer in women’s college basketball history but also the all-time leading scorer in NCAA history, whether women or men, all the while transforming women’s basketball into one of the most watched and talked about sports in the country makes her record-breaking performance an easy selection. JS Best Championship Performance Nominees: Blake Corum & Will Johnson, Kayla Martello, Midge Purce, Jaylen Brown Our Winner: Jaylen Brown Brown won the Larry Bird (Eastern Conference Finals) MVP and the Bill Russell (NBA Finals) MVP to help lead the Boston Celtics to their first NBA title since 2008. The Celtics had an incredible run to the championship, led by Brown, going 16-3 in the NBA postseason. EF Best Breakthrough Athlete Nominees: Haleigh Bryant, C.J. Stroud, Juju Watkins, Victor Wembanyama Our Winner: Victor Wembanyana Victor Wembanyana was drafted first overall by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2023 NBA Draft and immediately impacted the court. “Wemby” averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds per game in his first NBA season. He led the NBA in blocks per game with 3.6 and was named to the All-Rookie Team, All-Defensive Team and won Rookie of the Year in 2024. EF Best Comeback Athlete Nominees: Simone Biles, Paige Bueckers, Joe Flacco, Zion Williamson Our Winner: Simone Biles This one feels like it’s still in the making because I’m expecting Simone Biles to have a huge 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris after mostly pulling out of the 2020 Tokyo Games (in 2021) to focus on mental health issues. Biles is back on top of the game, racking up championships at the U.S. and World Gymnastics Championships. I’m frankly shocked she wasn’t nominated for Best Female Athlete by the ESPYs, but hopefully, this honor will do. JS Best NFL Player: Nominees: Myles Garrett, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Christian McCaffrey Our Winner: Patrick Mahomes This might be our most controversial choice because it’s Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who was named NFL MVP for the second time in his career and can do it all on the field, throwing and running the ball. Still, ultimately, we have to go with the face of the game, the guy consistently winning championships, and that’s Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes would surely trade the MVP for winning another Super Bowl ring. JS Best MLB Player: Nominees: Ronald Acuna Jr., Gerrit Cole, Shohei Ohtani, Corey Seager Our Winner: Shohei Ohtani I want to go with Atlanta Braves superstar outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. here because his 2023 season saw him as the first player in Major League Baseball history to hit 40 homers and steal 75 bases. Still, his torn ACL has him out for most of the 2024 season, which hurts his case. Also, hurting his case is there’s nobody in baseball right now bigger than L.A. Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani, who gives baseball probably its first household name since Derek Jeter retired. JS Best NBA Player: Nominees: Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Jayson Tatum Our Winner: Nikola Jokic Jayson Tatum led the Boston Celtics to their first NBA title in over a decade but he’s also basically part of a two-headed monster leading that team. I have to go with Nikola Jokic, who won his third career NBA MVP this season after leading the Denver Nuggets to the first title in franchise history the year prior. Jokic is a unicorn of a player who can do it all on the court despite seemingly having less athleticism than most players in the league and is a walking triple-double. JS Best College Athlete: Men’s Sports Nominees: Jayden Daniels, Zach Edey, Ousmane Sylla, Pat Kavanagh Our Winner: Jayden Daniels LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels won the 2023 Heisman Trophy, leading the Tigers to nine wins. Daniels totaled 4,946 yards in both running and passing in 2023, with 50 touchdowns (40 passing and 10 rushing). The Washington Commanders drafted him second in the 2024 NFL Draft. EF Best College Athlete: Women's Sports Nominees: Haleigh Bryant, Caitlin Clark, Sarah Franklin, Izzy Scane Our Winner: Catlin Clark Caitlin Clark has been the face and the name of women's basketball in the last couple of years. She broke the NCAA Women's Basketball's all-time scoring record and is now making a huge impact in the WNBA. EF Best WNBA Player Nominees: Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart, Alyssa Thomas, A’ja Wilson Our Winner: A'ja Wilson A’ja Wilson has led the Las Vegas Aces to back-to-back WNBA championships. The 2022 WNBA MVP won the WNBA Finals MVP in 2023 and will represent the USA in the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Paris. EF Best NHL Player Nominees: Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid Our Winner: Connor McDavid Connor McDavid had another great season, leading the Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final. McDavid had 132 points in the regular season, 100 were assists. During the Oilers' Playoff Run, McDavid scored 42 points, 34 of which were assists. McDavid was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy despite the Oilers losing the Stanley Cup Final. (Only the sixth player in history on the losing end of the Stanley Cup Final to win the Conn Smythe Trophy). EF Best Tennis Player Nominees: Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek Our Winner: Iga Swiatek Iga Swiatek has been the world's No. 1 women's tennis player since 2022 and has held that position for 110 weeks. Swiatek made it to at least the fourth round in all four major tournaments in 2023. She just won her fourth French Open title in the last five years. EF Best Golfer Nominees: Nelly Korda, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Lilia Vu Our Winner: Scottie Scheffler Nelly Korda had quite the run earlier this year in the LPGA with a record-tying five consecutive tournament wins. Still, nobody has been hotter in the golfing world than PGA Tour star Scottie Scheffler, who has won six tournaments just halfway through the year, including his second Masters title in the last three years. No one has had a run like the one Scheffler has been on this year since the heyday of Tiger Woods. JS Best Soccer Player Nominees: Aitana Bonmati, Naomi Girma, Vinicius Junior, Kylian Mbappe Our Winner: Kylian Mbappe Kylian Mbappe became captain of the French National Soccer Team in March 2023. He spent the last seven years playing for Paris Saint-German, scoring 175 goals in 205 appearances. He will play for Real Madrid later in 2024. EF Best UFC Fighter Nominees: Islam Makhachev, Sean O’Malley, Alex Pereira, Zhang Weili Our Winner: Islam Makhachev Islam Makhachev is the current UFC lightweight champion and is 26-1 in his UFC career. His last and only loss came in 2015. Since that loss, Makhachev has won 14 straight UFC fights, including the lightweight championship he has held since 2022. EF Best Driver Nominees: Ryan Blaney, Matt Hagan, Alex Palou, Max Verstappen Our Winner: Max Verstappen Formula 1 is the least competitive of all the motorsports series in this category (NASCAR, NHRA and IndyCar being the other three). However, Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing has been on such a heater over the last few years (likely the best in F1 history) that picking another driver would be fool-hearted. Verstappen is expected to win every F1 race these days and often does. JS |
