NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles won as best male and female athletes at the ESPYS on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.
Gilgeous-Alexander, of Hamilton, Ont., led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the NBA championship last month while piling up hardware as league MVP and scoring champion.
Canada's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander named NBA Finals MVP as Oklahoma City Thunder win championship
Biles, an 11-time Olympic medallist, claimed the night's first award, best championship performance for her efforts at the Paris Games. She won three golds and a silver while helping the U.S. win its first team title since 2016.
"That was very unexpected, especially in a category of all men," Biles said after kissing her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens.
She beat out Stephen Curry, Freddie Freeman, and Rory McIlroy.
Biles' Olympic teammate, Suni Lee, won the best comeback award for overcoming two rare kidney diseases. She brought one of her doctors to the show.
Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage from point guard Russell Westbrook.
Robertson was president of the NBA Players' Association at the time of a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the NBA in 1970. It led to an extensive reform of the league's strict free agency and draft rules and eventually to higher salaries for all players.
The 86-year-old Robertson, a 12-time All Star known as The Big O during his career, was the first Black president of any sports labour union.
"I knew there was work to do. There was a desperate need for players to have more career security, improved working conditions and other accommodations," he said. "In life, it's important to be persistent or as I have been
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