BATON ROUGE — If Devery Henderson is going to bring an ESPY back to Baton Rouge on Wednesday he’ll have to do it against some stiff competition as ESPN announced the other nominees for “Best Play” on Monday.
Henderson will travel to Los Angeles for Wednesday’s live airing of the 11th-annual ESPYs from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. For the first time, online fan voting will determine the winner in the “Best Play” category. Voting will begin on ESPN.com on Wednesday morning and will continue throughout the live ESPY Awards telecast, which begins at 8 p.m. CT.
The winner of the “Best Play” award will be announced during the final segment of the show.
Henderson, who will attempt to join former Tiger Warren Morris as LSU’s two ESPY winners, has been nominated for his 75-yard last-second catch, billed “The Bluegrass Miracle” to beat Kentucky last fall.
The other nominees for the “Best Play” category include Barry Bonds’ near-500-foot home run in Game Two of the World Series against the Angels, Michael Vick’s 46-yard overtime touchdown scramble against the Vikings, and two dunks — LeBron James’ between-the-legs dunk and Laker Kobe Bryant’s behind-the-back 360 dunk.
Hosted by Jamie Foxx, the ESPY Awards will bring together the sports world to celebrate top achievements, relive memorable moments and salute best performers and performances. The Best Play fan voting marks the second new interactive element for this year’s ESPY Awards. Winners for the 17 sport-specific categories were voted on by the fans through online fan balloting last month; more than five million votes were registered.
In all, the ESPY Awards will include 33 different categories featuring both sport-specific and cross-cutter awards (categories that pit athletes from different sports against each other). The ESPY Academy, comprised of legendary athletes and coaches voted on the cross-cutters. All of the winners will be announced on the telecast. In addition, the Arthur Ashe Courage Award is presented annually to individuals whose contributions transcend sports. This year’s recipients are Pat and Kevin Tillman.