Best Male Athlete ESPY Award

The Best Male Athlete ESPY Award, known alternatively as the Outstanding Male Athlete ESPY Award, is an annual award honoring the achievements of individual men from the world of sports. It has been presented annually at the ESPY Awards (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) since 1993 to the male voted irrespective of nationality or sport contested, adjudged to be the best athlete in a given calendar year.^[1] The Best Male Athlete ESPY Award trophy, designed by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan,^[2] is presented to the recipient at an annual ceremony in Los Angeles.^[1] Since 2004, the winner has been chosen by online balloting through three to five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.^[3] Before that, determination of the winners was made by an panel of experts.^[4] Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in July and reflect performance from the June previous.^[a][5]

Best Male Athlete ESPY Award
Awarded for	Best male athlete
Location	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Presented by	ESPN
First award	1993
Currently held by	Patrick Mahomes (U.S.)
Website	espn.co.uk/espys

The inaugural winner of the Best Male Athlete ESPY Award was basketball player Michael Jordan in 1993.^[6] Four American athletes, golfer Tiger Woods, road cyclist Lance Armstrong, basketball player LeBron James, and American football player Patrick Mahomes have won the award multiple times. Woods was honored five times: in 1998 (jointly with baseball player Ken Griffey Jr.), 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2008. Armstrong was honored four times from 2003 to 2006 inclusive. James received the award on three occasions in 2012, 2013 and 2016. Mahomes received the award twice in 2023 and 2024. Basketball is the most successful sport, its players having received a total of nine awards and thirty-three nominations since its inception, followed by American football players with six wins and twenty-seven nominations. The award has been won by a non-American four times – in 2011 by German basketball player Dirk Nowitzki,^[7] in 2018 by Russian hockey player Alex Ovechkin, in 2019 by Greek basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo and in 2022 by Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani. All four were playing for American teams. It was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[8]

Winners and nominees

Winners and nominees of the Best Male Athlete ESPY Award

Year	Image	Athlete	Nation	Sport	Nominees	Ref(s)
1993		Michael Jordan	USA	Basketball	Dennis Eckersley ( USA) – Baseball Mario Lemieux ( CAN) – Ice hockey Emmitt Smith ( USA) – American football Steve Young ( USA) – American football	[6][9]
1994		Barry Bonds	USA	Baseball	Charles Barkley ( USA) – Basketball Mario Lemieux ( CAN) – Ice hockey Nigel Mansell ( GBR) – Motorsport Charlie Ward ( USA) – College football	[10][11][12]
1995		Steve Young	USA	American football	George Foreman ( USA) – Boxing Hakeem Olajuwon ( USA) – Basketball Barry Sanders ( USA) – American football	[13][14]
1996		Cal Ripken Jr.	USA	Baseball	Greg Maddux ( USA) – Baseball Hakeem Olajuwon ( USA) – Basketball	[15][16]
1997		Michael Johnson	USA	Track and field	Michael Jordan ( USA) – Basketball Tiger Woods ( USA) – Golf	[17][18]
1998		Tiger Woods	USA	Golf	Michael Jordan ( USA) – Basketball Barry Sanders ( USA) – American football	[19][20][21]
		Ken Griffey Jr.	USA	Baseball
1999		Mark McGwire	USA	Baseball	Terrell Davis ( USA) – American football Jeff Gordon ( USA) – NASCAR Michael Jordan ( USA) – Basketball Sammy Sosa ( DOM) – Baseball	[22][23]
2000		Tiger Woods (2)	USA	Golf	Tim Duncan ( USA) – Basketball Pedro Martínez ( DOM) – Baseball	[6][24]
2001		Tiger Woods (3)	USA	Golf	Lance Armstrong  USA) – Road cycling Shaquille O'Neal ( USA) – Basketball	[6][25]
2002		Tiger Woods (4)	USA	Golf	Lance Armstrong ( USA) – Road cycling Barry Bonds ( USA) – Baseball Shaquille O'Neal ( USA) – Basketball Cael Sanderson ( USA) – Collegiate wrestling	[6][26]
2003		Lance Armstrong	USA	Road cycling	Barry Bonds ( USA) – Baseball Tim Duncan ( USA) – Basketball Tiger Woods ( USA) – Golf	[27][28]
2004		Lance Armstrong (2)	USA	Road cycling	Barry Bonds ( USA) – Baseball Tom Brady ( USA) – American football Kevin Garnett ( USA) – Basketball Peyton Manning ( USA) – American football	[27][29]
2005		Lance Armstrong (3)	USA	Road cycling	Peyton Manning ( USA) – American football Bode Miller ( USA) – Skiing Michael Phelps ( USA) – Swimming Vijay Singh ( FIJ) – Golf	[27][30]
2006		Lance Armstrong (4)	USA	Road cycling	Shaun Alexander ( USA) – American football LeBron James ( USA) – Basketball Albert Pujols ( DOM) – Baseball Vince Young ( USA) – College football	[27][31]
2007		LaDainian Tomlinson	USA	American football	Roger Federer (  SUI) – Tennis LeBron James ( USA) – Basketball Peyton Manning ( USA) – American football Tiger Woods ( USA) – Golf	[32]
2008		Tiger Woods (5)	USA	Golf	Tom Brady ( USA) – American football Kobe Bryant ( USA) – Basketball Alex Rodriguez ( USA) – Baseball	[33][34]
2009		Michael Phelps	USA	Swimming	Kobe Bryant ( USA) – Basketball LeBron James ( USA) – Basketball Jimmie Johnson ( USA) – NASCAR	[35]
2010		Drew Brees	USA	American football	Kobe Bryant ( USA) – Basketball LeBron James ( USA) – Basketball Jimmie Johnson ( USA) – NASCAR Albert Pujols ( DOM) – Baseball	[36][37]
2011		Dirk Nowitzki	DEU	Basketball	Jimmie Johnson ( USA) – NASCAR Rafael Nadal ( ESP) – Tennis Aaron Rodgers ( USA) – American football	[38][7]
2012		LeBron James	USA	Basketball	Novak Djokovic ( SER) – Tennis Aaron Rodgers ( USA) – American football Justin Verlander ( USA) – Baseball	[39][40]
2013		LeBron James (2)	USA	Basketball	Miguel Cabrera ( VEN) – Baseball Adrian Peterson ( USA) – American football Michael Phelps ( USA) – Swimming	[41]
2014		Kevin Durant	USA	Basketball	Miguel Cabrera ( VEN) – Baseball Peyton Manning ( USA) – American football Floyd Mayweather Jr. ( USA) – Boxing	[42][43]
2015		Stephen Curry	USA	Basketball	LeBron James ( USA) – Basketball Aaron Rodgers ( USA) – American football J. J. Watt ( USA) – American football	[44]
2016		LeBron James (3)	USA	Basketball	Stephen Curry ( USA) – Basketball Bryce Harper ( USA) – Baseball Cam Newton ( USA) – American football	[45][46]
2017		Russell Westbrook	USA	Basketball	Kris Bryant ( USA) – Baseball Sidney Crosby ( CAN) – Ice hockey Michael Phelps ( USA) – Swimming	[47][48]
2018		Alexander Ovechkin	RUS	Ice hockey	Jose Altuve ( VEN) – Baseball Tom Brady ( USA) – American football James Harden ( USA) – Basketball	[49][50]
2019		Giannis Antetokounmpo	GRE	Basketball	Mookie Betts ( USA) – Baseball Brooks Koepka ( USA) – Golf Patrick Mahomes ( USA) – American football	[51][52]
2020	Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic					[8]
2021		Tom Brady	USA	American football	Lewis Hamilton ( GBR) – Formula One Nikola Jokić ( SER) – Basketball Connor McDavid ( CAN) – Ice hockey	[53][54]
2022		Shohei Ohtani	JPN	Baseball	Stephen Curry ( USA) – Basketball Connor McDavid ( CAN) – Ice hockey Aaron Rodgers ( USA) – American football	[55][56]
2023		Patrick Mahomes	USA	American football	Nikola Jokić ( SER) – Basketball Aaron Judge ( USA) – Baseball Lionel Messi ( ARG) – Soccer	[57]
2024		Patrick Mahomes (2)	USA	American football	Connor McDavid ( CAN) – Ice hockey Shohei Ohtani ( JPN) – Baseball Scottie Scheffler ( USA) – Golf	[58]

Statistics

Multiple winners and nominees Name Wins Nominations Tiger Woods 5 8 Lance Armstrong 4 6 LeBron James 3 8 Patrick Mahomes 2 3 Barry Bonds 1 4 Tom Brady 1 4 Michael Jordan 1 4 Michael Phelps 1 4 Stephen Curry 1 3 Shohei Ohtani 1 2 Steve Young 1 2 Giannis Antetokounmpo 1 1 Drew Brees 1 1 Kevin Durant 1 1 Ken Griffey Jr. 1 1 Michael Johnson 1 1 Mark McGwire 1 1 Dirk Nowitzki 1 1 Alexander Ovechkin 1 1 Cal Ripken Jr. 1 1 LaDainian Tomlinson 1 1 Russell Westbrook 1 1 Peyton Manning 0 4 Aaron Rodgers 0 4 Kobe Bryant 0 3 Jimmie Johnson 0 3 Connor McDavid 0 3 Miguel Cabrera 0 2 Tim Duncan 0 2 Nikola Jokić 0 2 Mario Lemieux 0 2 Hakeem Olajuwon 0 2 Shaquille O'Neal 0 2 Albert Pujols 0 2 Barry Sanders 0 2

Winners by nationality Country Winners Nominations  USA 28 76  DEU 1 1  GRE 1 1  RUS 1 1  JPN 1 2  DOM 0 4  CAN 0 6  VEN 0 3  SER 0 3  ARG 0 1  ESP 0 1  GBR 0 1  FIJ 0 1   SUI 0 1

Winners by sport Sport Winners Nominations Basketball 9 33 American football 6 27 Baseball 5 24 Golf 5 11 Road cycling 4 6 Ice hockey 1 7 Swimming 1 4 Track and field 1 1 NASCAR 0 4 Tennis 0 3 Boxing 0 2 College football 0 2 Collegiate wrestling 0 1 Formula One 0 1 Motorsport 0 1 Skiing 0 1 Soccer 0 1

See also

• Best Female Athlete ESPY Award
• Best International Athlete ESPY Award

Notes

1. Because of the rescheduling of the ESPY Awards ceremony, the award presented in 2002 was given in consideration of performance betwixt February 2001 and June 2002.^[5]