ESPN aired their annual ESPYS awards on Wednesday evening. The best of the best joined together for an evening of laughs, celebrations of their accomplishments, and the hand off of awards. Several awards were no brainers, others were tights races, while other left several questioning if they awarded the correct winner. One that stuck out the most was the winner of “Comeback Player of the Year” which went to Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson.
Thompson tore his ACL during the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors. While recovering and rehabbing, he tore his Achilles which kept him out for the entirety of the 2020-21 season. He returned in January and became a vital piece of their 2022 championship run. He averaged 19 points on 42.9 percent shooting to go along 3.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game during the 2022 playoffs.
Klay Thompson had a strong case to win and any other year, it would not be as controversial. But this year, he beat out two players that dealt with major medical issues. Trey Mancini of the Baltimore Orioles beat colon cancer and would return to baseball to be one of his team’s best players. Diamond DeShields of the Chicago Sky (now on the Phoenix Mercury) had a tumor on her spine, relearned how to walk, and was a key contributor of the Sky’s WNBA championship winning team.
Many feel Trey Mancini deserved the honor but whether you thought it was him or DeShields, it seems fair to say they got it wrong. And people on Twitter felt the same.
It’s also worth noting the terrible timing of the award announcement as it came after Dickie V’s 20-minute speech about his cancer journey.
It is tough to give ESPN the full blame here as the voting was done by fans. It is no surprise Klay Thompson won as the league’s popularity is at the highest of any other league in professional sports. Some fixes for this could have been made by not doing a fan vote but also just not having this award go directly after a speech like the one done by Dick Vitale.
Also, MLB and WNBA are to blame here. Both have failed their players and teams time and time again by not connecting with their fanbases and future fanbases. Both leagues have constantly been brought up in discussions surrounding poor marketing. If they improve, it is more likely the fans voting will know about Trey Mancini and Diamond DeShields.
For more on Trey Mancini’s journey and Diamond DeShield’s story through the provided links below.
Trey Mancini:
Holly Rowe’s piece on Diamond Deshields: https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/33862277/diamond-deshields-wnba-comeback-knew-about
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