Comedian Shane Gillis’s opening monologue as host at the Espys awards ceremony went over awkwardly in front of some of the biggest names in sports on Wednesday night.
Early on, he called out various famous faces in the Dolby Theatre crowd in Los Angeles, including retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi, who received the Icon Award later in the evening. Gillis asked the crowd to “give it up for Taurasi”, but only after he had called the six-time Olympic champion “Deanna.” The camera showed an unsmiling Taurasi shaking her head. Gillis quickly caught his mistake, saying, “My bad on that.”
Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, also claimed the night’s first award, best championship performance for her efforts at the Paris Games. She won three golds and a silver at last summer’s Olympics. “That was very unexpected, especially in a category of all men,” Biles said after beating Stephen Curry, Freddie Freeman and Rory McIlroy to the championship performance award.
Biles’ Olympic teammate, Suni Lee, won the best comeback award for overcoming two rare kidney diseases to help the US win team gold in Paris. She brought one of her doctors to the show.
