ESPY Awards in LA (July 04)

ESPY AWARDS

LOS ANGELES — Actor and comedian Jamie Foxx hosted the 12th annual ESPY Awards Wednesday July 14 from Hollywood‘s Kodak Theatre.

Diana Taurasi won an ESPY as the top female college athlete.  Lance Armstrong, who competed in the Tour de France, captured the top male athlete award for  the second straight year .   For the first time, it was the sports fans who determined the winners in all 36 ESPY Award categories.   More than 10 million fans voted.

Stars come out for the 2004 ESPYs.     

Billy Bob Thornton presented former UConn basketball star and current Phoenix Mercury rookie Diana Taurasi – also a winner this year for Best Female College Athlete – with the Best Female Athlete award.

Sharon Stone announced that Lance Armstrong, currently in pursuit of his sixth consecutive Tour de France victory, won his second consecutive Best Male Athlete award.

The world champion Detroit Pistons and coach Larry Brown continued their success in L.A., just weeks after capturing the NBA crown over the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers, as they won three ESPY Awards: Best Coach, Best Upset and Best Team.

Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington both gave stirring tributes.

Other Stars in attendance included Faith Hill, Christina Applegate, Bernie Mac and Vince Vaughn and athletes LeBron James, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Mia Hamm.

HOST JAMIE FOXX
Opening the show, Foxx joked that all bets were off since he was working "on a four-day delay." Playing a variety of characters in both scripted and improvised bits, Foxx skewered the likes of Samuel L. Jackson and athletes LeBron James, Terrell Owens and Gary Payton. Foxx also brought the house down with a reprise performance of his musical tribute to tennis star Serena Williams, "Can I Be Your Tennis Ball?" and later joined Outkast onstage to close the show with a performance of their hit "I Like The Way You Move."

TOM CRUISE / PAT TILLMAN TRIBUTE
Actor Tom Cruise presented a tribute to the late Pat Tillman, recipient of the 2003 Arthur Ashe Courage Award. The Phoenix Cardinals standout was killed in action in Afghanistan in April. "Pat Tillman surrendered a life of fame and security to set an example," Cruise said. "An example of something that we deeply value but so often take for granted – our freedom in this nation to choose our own destinies."

DENZEL WASHINGTON / ARTHUR ASHE COURAGE AWARD
Academy Award winner Denzel Washington presented the Arthur Ashe Courage Award to George Weah, the Liberian-born soccer legend who has used his worldwide celebrity to help repair his war-torn country. "George Weah is one of the greatest soccer players of our time," Washington said, "from a nation where chaos has been the rule and where children are born killers." The actor introduced a video tribute that chronicled Liberia‘s bloody recent history – and George Weah’s efforts, at great personal and emotional expense, to take guns out of the hands of children and bring the light of sports to a nation that had once lost its hope.

 

The 2004 ESPY Awards winners

Nominees for the 38 ESPY categories were announced on June 21. The winners for each of the categories were selected by the fans via ESPN.com and league site voting.   Polls closed July 9 and the winners were announced during the ESPY Awards on July 14.

The highlighted winners were:

Best Female Athlete — Diana Taurasi
Best Male Athlete — Lance Armstrong
Best Team — Detroit Pistons