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Post by Admin on Dec 9, 2020 1:48:32 GMT
Sports Illustrated announced its annual Sportsperson of the Year award and for only the fifth time since it began in 1954 it went to a group of athletes. It is only the second time the award has gone to a group of different athletes who are not on the same team.
The magazine awarded the 2020 title to “The Activist Athlete” and named LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, Patrick Mahomes, Naomi Osaka and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif as its winners. All five won a championship in their respective leagues and have used their voices and broad platforms to bring attention to inequality.
Previous group winners include the 1980 U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team, the 2004 Boston Red Sox and the 2018 Golden State Warriors. In 1987 the magazine awarded it to a group of eight athletes dubbed “Athletes Who Care.”
Each of 2020’s five winners were honored with an article written by a fellow athlete featuring their year as “champions on the field, champions for others off it,” as the editors wrote in Sunday’s announcement.
“If there is brightness in this dark year, it’s the leadership—and sorely needed optimism—shown by some of the nation’s top athletes in facing down our many challenges,” the editors wrote.
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Post by Admin on Dec 9, 2020 23:54:35 GMT
From a third-time winner who helped drive record election turnout to a newbie who spent the fall fighting a pandemic, this year's honorees—LeBron James, Breanna Stewart, Patrick Mahomes, Naomi Osaka and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif—were champions on the field, champions for others off it.
Usually, to be a world-class athlete is to be a world-class optimist. It’s practically a job requirement. The lottery-length odds against making it to the top level, the brutal competition once you’re there, the inevitability of injuries and bad bounces and cold streaks—staying positive requires a messianic belief that with enough effort and dedication, somehow things will work out fine.
As we’re all painfully aware, 2020 was a year to try the patience of even the most positive among us. “Man we cancelling sporting events, school, office work, etc etc.,” LeBron James lamented to his 48 million Twitter followers on March 12, the day after the coronavirus forced the NBA to suspend its season. “What we really need to cancel is 2020!” And the year got worse from there. The virus has now claimed more than 275,000 American lives. The Memorial Day killing of George Floyd set off nationwide protests against police brutality and racial inequality. An ugly presidential election further divided a deeply partisan nation.
There’s a choice to be made at moments like this. We can turn inward, cowering from destructive forces that feel beyond our control, or work to bend the arc of history. That is the more difficult option, the braver path—and yes, even someone as driven and accomplished as James can have moments of frustration. But it’s clear which path he has chosen, and he is not alone. If there is brightness in this dark year, it’s the leadership—and sorely needed optimism—shown by some of the nation’s top athletes in facing down our many challenges.
And so our Sportsperson of the Year award goes to five men and women who in 2020 were champions in every sense of the word: champions on the field, champions for others off it. Patrick Mahomes, the Super Bowl MVP who used his platform as the NFL’s transcendent star to push the league to recognize the Black Lives Matter movement and players’ rights to protest. Naomi Osaka, the U.S. Open tennis champion who embraced her fame and found her voice in the fight against social injustice. Breanna Stewart, who returned from a devastating injury to lead her team to the WNBA title and who spoke loudly against racism and for women’s equality. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, the Chiefs’ lineman who became a Super Bowl champion and then left the NFL to join the front lines of the battle against COVID-19. And James, who led the Lakers to the NBA title, won his fourth Finals MVP trophy and worked tirelessly to end voter suppression and ensure that in 2020 everyone—especially Black people—had equal access to the polls.
Mahomes, Osaka, Stewart and Duvernay-Tardif are all under 30 and early in their activist journeys. James, 35, long ago found his social and political voice. There is debate over whether he’s the greatest NBA player ever. But with his efforts for racial justice, education reform and Black community empowerment as well as his voting rights campaign and varied charitable work, there is no doubt that he sets the standard for the modern socially conscious athlete. It is for his career-long dedication to service that Sports Illustrated also honors him with this year’s Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. “He continues to embody Muhammad’s principles and core beliefs, using his celebrity platform to champion social justice and political causes that uplift all people,” says Lonnie Ali, the Greatest’s widow. “LeBron has actively used Muhammad’s example to guide, inform and inspire him along this path.”
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