The Raptors had an incredible run, culminating in the 2019 NBA championship. Now they’ve added a little extra hardware, sweeping the Best Male Athlete categories at FanSided’s Sports Oscars.
It’s fairly easy to recognize the best performers inside of a given sport. League awards are chosen by various mechanisms, arguments ensue, but the answer is down on paper. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the NBA’s 2019 MVP. Elena Delle Donne is the WNBA’s 2019 MVP. But was the narrative of Giannis’ domination more impressive than Tiger Woods’ comeback? Or Lionel Messi somehow extending his prime by another season?
For the sake of cross-sport comparison and general merry-making, this year, FanSided unveiled the Sports Oscars.
Like the Oscars, they recognize outstanding performances and technical achievements. Like the Oscars, the nominees are determined by a mysterious body of voters. There will be snubs. There will miscategorizations. But the feelings you feel — anger, confusion, indignation, validation, existential despair at the passage of time because how on Earth did that happen last year? — are the same feelings being felt by your film fan counterparts right now.
The nominees were announced last month and now, the winners have been announced and we can celebrate another epic run by the Toronto Raptors.
Kawhi Leonard took home a Sports Oscar in the Best Male Athlete in a leading role category. He had the incredible buzzer-beater to help the Raptors advance to the Eastern Conference Finals and he averaged 30.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game in the playoffs, shooting 49.0 percent from the field. The voters were clearly swayed by his postseason heroics as he bested regular-season MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo in this category.
Leonard’s teammate, Fred VanVleet, won a Sports Oscar in the Best Male Athlete in a supporting role category, edging out Howie Kendrick, Rob Gronkowski, Lamar Jackson and Virgil van Dijk. Again, postseason performance must have made a difference with the voters. VanVleet was solid if unspectacular in the regular season but took primary responsibility for defending Stephen Curry in the Finals and averaged 14 points per game in the series, including an enormous 22-point effort in the title-clinching Game 6.
The Raptors were also nominated in the Best Picture category for their title run, but ultimately lost to the USWNT and their inspiring domination in the World Cup. Other basketball nominees included:
- Bucks’ coach Mike Budenholzer in the Best Directing category
- WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne for Best Female Athlete in a Leading Role category
- WNBA stars Chiney Ogwumike and Emma Meesseman for Best Female Athlete in a Supporting Role
- The Miami Heat’s “Vice” jerseys for Best Costume Design
- Zion Williamson’s “shoe explosion” and Damian Lillard’s “wave goodbye” in the Best Short category
- The Houston Rockets’ memo to the NBA about supposed referee bias in the Best Special Effects category