What will you be doing tonight? Hopefully, it’ll be in front of a TV, with some chips and drinks, checking out one of the best nights in sports.
Tonight at 9 P.M. EST, Seth Meyers will be hosting the ESPYs. While much of our night will be centered on finding the good-looking females in attendance (remember Brooklyn Decker last year?), as well as attempting to make it through much of the boring parts of the show (seriously, who cares about the Best Jockey or the Best Bowler?), this has always been a relatively memorable night.
So in honor of the ESPYs, Dime put together our own condensed version, sticking strictly to just basketball.
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BEST PLAYER: Dirk Nowitzki
In an attempt to avoid cliches, I really wanted to pick Derrick Rose. Or Dwight Howard. Or even Kemba Walker (college version). But really, this was the year of Dirk. Simple as that. Early on, he was a legitimate MVP candidate. Then, he was forgotten about for a little while before resurfacing again in the playoffs.
For a guy who was never given his just due, he lead the Mavs to a 14-3 finish after their Game 4 first round collapse in Portland. All of that against the best competition in the world. 14-3! When other stars had chances to step up, it was Dirk stepping higher. When it came down to crunch time, it was the German doing the crunching.
Upon receiving this award, I’m hoping he gives us another We Are The Chaaaaampions!
-SEAN SWEENEY
BEST CHAMPIONSHIP PERFORMANCE: Dirk Nowitzki
Who else? In leading the Mavericks to the NBA Championship, Dallas’ fearless leader and Finals MVP led the Mavs in scoring in all but one game, including his fever-ridden and team-high 21 points in Game 4 that evened the series against the Heat at two games apiece and tilted the series in the Mavs’ favor. Nowitzki also scored 27 points in Game 1, 24 in Game 2 despite a torn tendon in his finger, 34 in Game 3 and 29 in Game 5.
Nowitzki’s supporting cast certainly helped lead the Mavs’ to their title, but his ability to knock down shots in any situation made him invaluable and the reason why Dallas won it all. He was the heart and soul of this team, and his dominating championship performance proved it.
-RACHEL MARCUS
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PLAYER: J.J. Barea
There is no one player more qualified for the title of “best breakthrough player” than J.J Barea. Throughout his career after his collegiate days at Northeastern University, Barea has consistently defied the odds. After being undrafted in the 2006 NBA Draft, he proved himself by balling his heart out in the Las Vegas Summer League, achieving his dream and earning a spot on the Dallas Mavericks roster.
Fast forward five years and he’s still holding his own, to say the least. Skip Bayless said on ESPN First Take that Barea is on his way to becoming one of the best little men the game has ever seen. Bold statement, but he was deserving of some recognition nonetheless. Although it doesn’t really show on the stat sheet, Barea had a remarkable postseason. He absolutely ran circles around the Lakers, making them so frustrated that Artest & Odom did their best to put him out of commission for good.
Although he didn’t drop 30 every night, Barea handled the intense atmosphere in the NBA Finals with amazing poise and composure. He left his mark on Game 4 though, punching in four crucial three pointers and scoring 17 big points. In honor of his performance during the championship run, the Puerto Rican sensation was rewarded by the people of his home country with a parade of his very own. Not many NBA players can go from being undrafted to having their own parade.
-JAIMIE CANTERBURY
BEST UPSET: Memphis over San Antonio
The Grizzlies franchise was 0-12 in the NBA Playoffs, and 16 years after their inception into the league, that of course meant they never had won a playoff series. As the No. 8 team that dropped to the last Western Conference seed in the final week of the regular season, critics said they thought Memphis had made a mistake of playing the No. 1 seeded San Antonio Spurs opposed to the Los Angeles Lakers.
But it was all a perfect script. Shane Battier, who was drafted onto the Griz in its first year in Memphis, was traded for during the season, hit a clutch jumper in the Game 1 win that spurred the end of the Spurs’ season. Troublemaker and past ball-hog Zach Randolph found a perfect mix of taking over the game and keeping his teammates involved. O.J. Mayo was to be traded to Indiana but the deal missed the trade deadline, yet wasn’t phased enough to not play his tail off. And Marc Gasol, traded in a then-lopsided deal for brother Pau, was a monster. With that, the unthinkable happened, and the top overall seed Spurs fell in six games.
-KEVIN ZIMMERMAN
BEST MOMENT: Kemba Walker’s Buzzer-Beater Vs. Pittsburgh
With the score knotted at 74 and a trip to the Big East semifinals on the line, Kemba Walker controlled the ball at the top of the key with five ticks on the clock. After trailing by as many as 12 in the first half to a favored Pittsburgh squad, the ninth-seeded Huskies clawed their way back into the game and had a chance to pull off the upset on their final possession.
Walker drove right, crossed over to his left hand, busted a mean step-back that shook his defender, and stuck the jumper as the buzzer sounded, sending the crowd at Madison Square Garden into a frenzy. Walker and UConn rode the momentum from the shot for the rest of the season, rattling off eight-straight victories to claim the Big East and NCAA championships behind Walker’s 24.1 points per game.
-MARTIN KESSLER
BEST GAME: Nets Vs. Raptors (London)
This season, the NBA took a page from the NFL’s book and sent two teams over to London to give the Brits a taste of how we do things. The New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors played two games in the O2 Arena, the second of which was an absolute thriller. It didn’t matter that both the Nets and Raptors were both essentially eliminated from playoff contention. Deron Williams (in his first game as a Net,) DeMar DeRozan, Brook Lopez, and Andrea Bargnani all put on a show, and it appeared as though the game was never going to end. To tie the game up in fourth, DeRozan spun into the lane for a deuce, and it was Maria Sharapova‘s boyfriend, Sasha Vujacic, who sunk a deep three-pointer off an out-of-bounds play to knot up the game at the end of the first OT.
But that wasn’t all. In the second OT, the silent assassin Bargnani banged home a three to put the Raptors up two, but D-Will answered with a little jumper in the lane off a broken play. To the third OT we went. The Nets were up by five (!) with 30 seconds to play, but the Raptors battled back and took a one-point lead after…get this…Leandro Barbosa knocked down a three!
The game’s ending was slightly anti-climactic. Travis Outlaw drew a controversial foul on a midrange jumper and sank two free throws. Bargani, who had chances all game to put the game away, tried a fade-away jumper to win it but it was not to be as the Nets won 137-136 in three overtimes. Although this was a relatively meaningless regular season game, a couple of young NBA teams with bright futures put on a show for the British fans.
-MICHAEL AUFSES
BEST COACH: Shaka Smart
Three years at California University of Pennslyvania as an assistant coach. Then three years at Dayton as the director of basketball operations. Then four years at Akron as an assistant coach. Then three years at Clemson as an assistant coach. Then two years at Florida as an assistant coach. Now, the head coach at Virginia Commonwealth.
This is the resume of Shaka Smart, the 34-year-old architect behind the magical and unforgettable Final Four run of Virginia Commonwealth.
With their “40-minutes-of-hell-esque” style of play, the Rams wreaked havoc on their opponents. They crushed team’s psyches and collapsed team’s playbooks. They frustrated fellow players and infuriated rival coaches. Virginia Commonwealth caused problems, just ask Bill Self.
Shaka Smart shocked the world in 2011. His Rams went 28-12, won five games in the NCAA Tournament and earned a spot in the Final Four. As a result – Shaka got paid. With a eight year contract worth $1.2 million, VCU locked up Shaka, and rightfully so. When you measure the talent of his team with their success in the tournament, no other coach came close. Shaka Smart is your coach of the year.
-SCOTT HORLBECK
What are you looking forward to seeing the most tonight?
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