The ESPY Awards kicked off on time at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Host Seth Meyers treated the audience to an opening monologue that could have been written for “Saturday Night Live”.

It was edgy, filled with plenty of references to Tiger Woods, who wasn’t there and there were many jokes at the expense of ESPN, the network that produces and broadcasts the show. All of them related to “The Decision”.

Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd appeared in a taped piece that parodied the awkward interview of LeBron James by Jim Gray. Others who were teased by Meyers were Brett Favre, yes he showed up, Olympic snow boarder Shaun White and even race car driver, Danica Patrick.

The first award of the evening was presented to Tennessee Titan’s running back, Chris Johnson. His category was Best Breakthrough Athlete. Johnson is going through a very public contract dispute with his employer but it didn’t keep voters from acknowledging him as one of the few 2000+ yard runners in NFL history.

The award for the Best Record-Breaking Performance was given to John Isner and Nicolas Mahut for the mind boggling first round match at this year’s Wimbledon Championships.  Their match took more than 11 hours to complete, stretched over three days. It ended with the score of 70-68 in the fifth set.

The Best Sports Moment of the Year was given to Landon Donovan for his game winning goal against Algeria. Donovan connected in the 91st minute of the match and sent the U.S. team to the second round of the World Cup tournament. Most of the team went up on stage to accept the award.

The ESPY Awards are fun and meant to award achievements in and around sports. However, there are loftier goals that are noted by the ESPY’s. The Arthur Ashe Courage Award and the Jimmy V Comeback Award are given to people who personify the traits of the men for whom the awards are named.

This year’s Ashe Award recipients are the family of Ed Thomas, the Iowa high school football coach who took a town on his back after an unthinkable tragedy. He ultimately was the victim of another.

Thomas’ town of Pakersburg, Iowa was leveled by an EF-5 tornado in the summer of 2008. He lost his home and the high school at which he taught and coached looked like it wouldn’t host another game, never mind be ready for the first game of the 2008 season.

Slideshow of ESPY Red Carpet attendees

He worked tirelessly to keep the town’s 2000 citizens focused and together. On cue, the football team took the field and didn’t just play the season, they went 11-1. It gave solace and solidarity to the town.

But one year later, he was shot to death by a former student who suffered from a mental illness. Thomas’ sons and wife not only consoled each other but made certain to reach out to the parents of the boy who had taken Ed’s life

They never even considered vilifying the troubled young man or his parents. It’s a small town, you see and the word “neighbors” means something special in Parkersburg.

The Thomas family led the town’s grieving as well as healing process and gave new meaning to “turn the other cheek”.

This year’s Jimmy V Comeback Award was given to Denver Nuggets’ head coach, George Karl. He was stricken with cancer for the second time within a few years and it kicked his butt.

He had to bow out of leading his team through the end of the season as well as the 2010 playoffs. The Nuggets struggled without him and were bounced in the first round.

Karl had already beaten prostate cancer and lived through his son Coby’s two surgeries for thyroid cancer. But the throat and neck cancer he contracted tested him like nothing else.

Forty rounds of radiation burned through his skin, took his voice and he thought the cure would kill him before the disease.

He appeared on stage in the shadow of the Jimmy V banners and talked of the support he has had as well as his hopes for how to find and fund a cure for the dread disease.

It’s clear he’s ready to return to the rat race that is the NBA season but he will forever be changed.

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Serena Williams held her latest Wimbledon trophy over her head on Centre Court Saturday. She had just cruised past her opponent, Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 and was asked about how she felt after winning her 13th career Grand Slam win.

A student of her sport’s history, she pointed to Billie Jean King, sitting in the stadium, and acknowledged that she had finally passed one of her tennis heroes.

Serena captures 12th Grand Slam at 2010 French Open   Slideshow

With Serena reaching a new level of achievement it’s easy to forget that at her advanced age for the game she plays (28), she still has goals and shows no signs of slowing down.

Men’s quarterfinals: Federer goes down, Nadal moves on SLIDESHOW

Serena lost only 3 points on her serve during the entire match with Zvonareva. They played 17 games during which the minimum number of points played to win is 4. It is a display of power and skill that never gets old.

Zvonareva, playing in her very first Grand Slam final despite being on tour almost 9 years, was clearly disappointed with her performance. Nonetheless, she graciously and sincerely gave Serena credit for that.

Women’s semis feature Serena and Vera in slideshow

With a reputation for blowing up on the court when faced with adversity, Zvonareva righted that ship during the two weeks of 2010 Wimbledon. She showed poise and character when she needed to come from behind.

After making it back from a serious injury that threatened to derail her career, she invited her medical team to watch her play. She thanked them profusely for allowing her to be able to get to the level she did. Whether she builds off this performance is the big question facing Zvonareva this summer.

In a post-match interview Serena was asked why it seemed that her joyful celebration after the win was more gleeful than usual. Her answer was that she didn’t have to play her sister.

The Williams sisters make it difficult to watch their matches against each other

The matches between the sisters for a trophy are rarely spirited except in spurts and neither wants to exult in the other’s failure. It makes for an awkward experience for fans as well.

In the meantime, the dominance of Serena Williams in the world of women’s tennis will continue if she stays healthy and interested.

Ahead of her are the Grand Slam totals of Martina Navratilova with 18 ad, Steffi Graf with 22. We’ll see how she does at the next stop on the Grand Slam train, the U.S. Open in Queen, New York.

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

If you had to pick a successor to Lakers coach Phil Jackson would it be the team’s current assistant coach, Brian Shaw or former Nets and Hornets head coach, Byron Scott?

That question just got closer to being relevant with the news on Tuesday morning about Shaw’s interest in the open coaching position with the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Is Phil done? His daughter and Luke Walton think so

Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times reported that Shaw’s representation sent out a text that said his client is “close to accepting a deal” to be head coach in Cleveland.

LeBron or no LeBron it’s a head coaching position, one of only 30 of its kind. It is available now, not dependent on someone else moving over to accommodate a successor. What’s that saying, “If you snooze you lose”?

Shaw, an assistant to Phil Jackson for five seasons isn’t just a clipboard holder. Like all Jackson assistants he was given responsibility for scouting a third of the league’s teams and game-planning when the Lakers were to face them.

He’s played in the triangle for Jackson, been a teammate of Kobe and Fish and now is a trusted adviser on the coaching staff.

Then there’s Byron Scott, perennially mentioned as a good candidate to slide into the coaching chair at Staples Center. Byron’s resume includes playing time as a member of the Showtime Lakers, during which he won three championship rings.

He returned to the team for his last year on the court which just happened to be during Kobe Bryant’s rookie year of 1996-97. The connection to Kobe is considered significant since it seems ridiculous to believe that Bryant wouldn’t be afforded the opportunity to weigh in on management’s ultimate choice.

As a head coach, Scott took the N.J. Nets to the finals twice in the last decade and weathered the chaos of coaching the New Orleans Hornets during the years they had no permanent home in the post-Katrina days.

He coached them all the way from an 18 win team to the second seed in the Western Division playoffs in 2008. For his efforts he won coach of the year.

But he never achieved the same success in the next season and rumblings turned into words that indicated Scott was out of favor with the team’s star point guard Chris Paul.It resulted in Scott’s firing early in the 2009 season.

Shaw has never been a head coach but his connection to all the current players is clearly superior to that of Scott and his preparation by Jackson has to count for something.

So there you have it ladies and gentleman. Not a bad pick between the two but the choice might come down to familiarity and trust rather than coaching resume. Polls are open at the bottom of this page here.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

When ring judge Arthur Mercante Jr. re-started Saturday’s fight between junior-middleweight champion Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium, it wasn’t clear who had thrown a white towel into the ring in an effort to stop the bout.

Mercante, a seasoned professional and the son of legendary referee, Arthur Mercante Sr. said he had too much respect for the champion to allow someone else to decide if he would lose his belt.

“You know what? I’m a referee who doesn’t like to disqualify or take points,” Mercante said after the fight. “I don’t like to see a guy lose a championship by disqualification.”

Well after the match ended Mercante put the pieces together. Fanhouse Boxing reported that the loud voice he heard, demanding the fight be stopped was Foreman’s wife, Leyla Leidecker, herself a former boxer.

The white towel was determined, ultimately to have come from Foreman’s corner, thrown by trainer Joe Grier. But in Mercante’s opinion, he was feeling pressure from the boxer’s spouse.

From Fanhouse: “What it was is, you’ve got your wife at ringside. That’s what it was. She’s yelling and screaming. And hey, I can understand that. Hey, I can see that. But that’s why wives should be in the 10th, 12th, 15th row,” said Mercante.

Say what you will about Mercante but he is old school. Not just in his view of where the boxers’ female companions should sit, but also about toughing it out despite an injury that made Foreman more than ineffective, it took away his ability to win.

Prior to the eighth round confusion, he had continued to encourage Foreman to “walk it off, champ.”

He gave the fighter enough time to steady himself after what looked to be painful falls from his knee buckling right out from under him.

It appeared as though he was giving the young man courage that he might not have had without Mercante’s insistence that he keep going.

Yuri Foreman lost his championship only after the referee had seen enough in the ninth round to convince him that Foreman had absorbed too much and was no longer in a position to take it.

But not until that precise moment occurred would the assertive, or shall we call him, aggressive Mercante allow his opinion to be swayed.

He evicted dozens of people from the ring in that eighth round.

They had jumped in after Foreman’s corner went through the ropes to try and make it official. First the towel, then the corner men stepped into the ring, followed by the usual TV cameras, print photographers, fight officials and Michael Buffer himself.

He threw out Michael Buffer, microphone in hand ready to announce the stoppage. Mercante would not be denied.

There wasn’t one moment of doubt in his mind that he could make the ultimate decision. He confirmed it by asking Foreman if he was OK to continue or wanted to stop.

He took the side of the fighter and didn’t care who was embarrassed, confused or made to look like wimps. His kindness was acknowledged by Foreman after the bout.

Now that’s old school.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Congratulazione I’ltalia! Francesca Schiavone, is the first professional tennis player from her country to win one of the four grand slam championships.

She fell to the red clay, then climbed into the stands to hug fans wearing tee-shirts proclaiming in English, “Schiavo: Nothing is Impossible”, She defeated Samantha Stosur in two sets, 6-4, 7-6(2).

Both competitors are veterans of at least ten years on the professional tour and reached the peak at the same tournament.

Stosur had vanquished both Justine Henin and Serena Williams to reach Saturday’s final match. Schiavone had to get past Na Li the 11th seed and one of the favorites to win, third seed, Caroline Wozniacki.

Stosur had a tough time handling the power of her opponent’s ground strokes as the match wore on. The Italian’s serves did not break down, even in the tie-break when it was clear both women were fatigued.

Schiavone proclaimed at the trophy ceremony:

“I prepared nothing to say now. If I did, I don’t think anything like this would happen.”

She then went on to prove that she didn’t need to worry about preparation, the words flowed in English and Italian.

John McEnroe declared on the television broadcast that the victory for Schiavone might help boost the efforts of the tennis organizations in that country. The Italians love tennis and have not been able to produce a major champion…until today.

As the World Cup is about to begin, the defending champion, Italy has a new prize to celebrate and Francesca Schiavone will forever be introduced as the woman’s champion of the 2010 French Open.

The men’s championship final will be played on Sunday featuring Rafael Nadal vs. Robin Sodeling.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

AUGUSTA, GA. – At the Masters on Friday, Tiger Woods was spared the exposure of more airplane banners chiding him for his recent behavior.

The FAA grounded the light airplane that had dragged banners across the sky above Augusta National.

On Thursday, those banners highlighted Woods’ sexual escapades with slogans like:

“Sex Addict? Yeah. Sure. Me Too.”

“Tiger, Did You Mean Bootyism?”

Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a minor mechanical problem kept the airplane grounded on Friday.

During his radio program on Friday, Dan Patrick said he had been told that a banner was to go out on Friday that ridiculed Stevie Williams, Tiger’s caddy. Williams had denied knowing a thing about his boss’ exploits in an interview with 60 Minutes.

According to Patrick, the banner would have mocked that assertion.

By the way, golf was played and the feel-good stories of Fred Couples and Tom Watson got pushed aside on Friday. Both men shot over par to slip down the leader board, making way for others who surged ahead.

The golf course was tougher on Friday with faster greens, difficult pin placements and wind gusts that disrupted everything from tee to green.

Filling out the top 9 places after 36 holes are:

Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are tied for first at -8. Tiger Woods, K.J. Choi, Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim and Ricky Barnes are tied for third at -6. Y.E. Yang ended the day at -5. Tom Watson, Fred Couples, and Soren Kjeldsen are tied for 9th at -2.

Because of the difficult conditions on Friday there were only a few golfers who made any sort of big move. Poulter carded a 68 after going -4, Lee Westwood shot a 69, 3 under par while Woods, Kim and Barnes came in at -2 for a 70 on the day.

The cut is projected to be +3 leaving many big time players out of the weekend play. Some of those projected to miss the cut at +4 and above are Padraig Harrington (+5), Stewart Cink (+8), Vijay Singh at +10 and Jim Furyk at a whopping (+12).

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

Camp Mayweather has gone on the attack late Thursday with a press release in which they want to make it very clear he isn’t scared of fighting Manny Pacquiao.

Floyd Mayweather’s publicist told me he was tired of the “lies” being spread by Bob Arum and others on the Pacquiao side of the equation. (Their word, not mine). What he wanted the world to know was that he agreed to a modification of the testing procedure PRIOR to the mediation.

Floyd Mayweather says that he already cut the time back from his demand for unrestricted testing and came half-way from his approach to Pacquiao’s suggestion that there should be no tests closer than 30 days prior to the fight.

That’s how the 14 day proposal came about.

Mayweather wants the public and his fans to know that Pacquiao’s side went into the two-day mediation knowing that was on the table already. He’s also adamant that his handlers did NOT suggest that he agree to the Pacquiao proposals.

After the “Correction Order” issued by the mediator made it understood that there was no proposal made by him that was rejected by one of the other side we now have Mayweather telling the world he wants to whip Manny’s punk ass.

What a day. Here’s the full text of Mayweather’s press release.

“Throughout this whole process I have remained patient, but at this point I am thoroughly disgusted that Pacquiao and his representatives are trying to blame me for the fight not happening when clearly the blame is on them.”

“First and foremost, not only do I want to fight Manny Pacquiao, I want to whip his punk ass.”

“Before the mediation, my team proposed a 14-day, no blood testing window leading up to the fight. But it was rejected. I am still proposing the 14-day window but he is still unwilling to agree to it, even though this is obviously a fair compromise on my part as I wanted the testing to be up until the fight and he wanted a 30-day cut-off. The truth is he just doesn’t want to take the tests.”

“In my opinion it is Manny Pacquiao and his team who are denying the people a chance to see the biggest fight ever. I know the people will see through their smokescreens and lies. I am ready to fight and sign the contract. Manny needs to stop making his excuses, step up and fight.”

Tired of the same old sports page? Then check out Paula Duffy’s insightful (and often humorous) take on the sports day at her Examiner.com page! The popular co-host for Sports Journey Radio is also a contributor to the Huffington Post and founder of the sports learning site Incidental Contact. In her spare time, Duffy practices law in Los Angeles. But don’t hold that against her.