Biggest Stars in Sports Show up for the 2009 ESPY awards

Sports Betting News - July 16th, 2009 - Written by Bruce

The 17th annual ESPY Award Show was hosted last night by the ever popular Samuel. L. Jackson. The event was held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles and the biggest names in sports were in attendance. The hometown team, Los Angeles Lakers, won the Espy for Best Team edging out a close Pittsburgh Steelers team. The Lakers coach Phil Jackson won the award for the Best Coach, his third such honor. The Lakers were unable to take the award for the NBA's Best Player as the Cleveland Cavaliers Lebron James was given that honor. It was an amazing season in the NBA this past year and these three awards were rightfully won by well deserving parties. The L.A. crowd no doubt wanted Kobe to win the NBA's Best Player award but Lebron deserved this one as he had a monster season. One streak came to an end at the ESPY's last night, the five year reign for Tiger Woods as the Best Male Athlete Award. Coming off a historic Olympics at the 2008 Beijing Games, Michael Phelps edged Tiger this year to win the prestigious award. He also won the Espy for Best U.S. Olympian and the Best Championship Performance.

Another star from the Beijing Games won an award last night as Usain Bolt was voted the Best International Athlete. Bolt gained worldwide fame when he blew away the field and broke the 100m world record in a time of 9.69 seconds. Olympic gold medal gymnast Nastia Liukin was voted the Best Female Athlete. Swimmer Dara Torres won the Espy for the Best Comeback. Another award went back to the Beijing pool as the U.S. men's 4x100m freestyle relay team won the Espy for the Best Moment. It was truly won of the greatest moments of the Olympics and captivated U.S. fans world wide. The Espy for the Best Upset was given to the U.S. Soccer Team when they defeated Spain in the Confederations Cup Semifinal. Super Bowl XLIII was given the ESPY for Best Game. In one of the most exciting Super Bowls ever the Pittsburgh Steelers edged out the Arizona Cardinals. The Best NFL Player award went to the Arizona Cardinal's Larry Fitzgerald. Albert Pujols won the Espy for the Best Baseball Player. The young superstar from the Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby won the Espy for the Best NHL Player.

Other award winner featured Tim Tebow and Maya Moore. Tebow was voted the Best Male College Athlete coming off leading the Florida Gators to a BCS National Championship. The Best Female College Athlete was given to Connecticutt basketball player Maya Moore who also led her team to a National Championship. The Espy for the Best Breakthrough Athlete was given to the Atlanta Falcona QB Matt Ryan. Ryan had an amazing rookie season last year in the NFL winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. The Espy for the Best WNBA Player went to Candace Parker of the L.A. Sparks. Tiger Woods was not surprisingly voted the Best Male Golfer and Lorena Ochoa won the Espy for the Best Female Golfer. The night celebrated the best athletes and performances of the past year. The ESPY's can be seen this Sunday night on ESPN.