Memorable Oration at This Year’s ESPY Awards

The 2016 ESPY Awards were presented in Los Angeles on July 13th, with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and former University of Connecticut basketball star Brenna Stewart, now playing for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, won the awards for Best Male and Female Athlete. The ESPYs are roughly the sports equivalent of the Oscars or Emmys, but sometimes the most memorable moments of the evening are about things other than sports.

The show opened with NBA basketball players, James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony calling for an end to violence and challenging their fellow athletes to educate themselves on the issues, get involved, work for social change in their communities, and do what they can to help put an end to violence.

At the very first ESPY Awards in 1993, former North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano, who was battling cancer, received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. In accepting the award, Valvano delivered an incredibly moving speech, closing with the line “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.” Valvano died less than two months later. Two years ago, ESPN broadcaster Stuart Scott was given the Jimmy V Award (also known more formally as the Jim Valvano Perseverance Award). Like Valvano, Scott was in a battle against cancer. Scott’s acceptance speech will never be forgotten by those who heard it, and featured the line “When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.” Compare Valvano’s and Scott’s inspirational speeches to some of the crap that comes out of politicians’ mouths these days, and well, there is no comparison. Scott died in January of 2015.

This year, the Jimmy V Award recipient is TBS and TNT sportscaster Craig Sager. Sager is in his own battle with cancer, in this case leukemia. The award was presented to Sager by Vice President Joe Biden. Sager, known for his loud and gaudy sports coats, did not disappoint, wearing one you just don’t see on the rack. Sager gave his own very moving acceptance speech, which will join the ranks of Valvano’s and Scott’s in the pantheon of great ESPY oration.