They never have, but there’s never been a situation like Griner’s before: one of the top athletes in her sport imprisoned in a foreign country for something that wouldn’t even be a misdemeanor in many US states. And not just any foreign country, but one about which a strong majority of Americans currently have strongly negative opinions.
The cynic in me also notes that Griner is Black and gay, and that SI might consider the polarization of those factors as a plus.
(bolding added)
I don’t know exactly how they decide on the awardee, but if it’s based on performance this year, how does Griner qualify?
I agree. All she’s done this year is get convicted of a crime and been sent to prison. Pick someone else who’s actually excelled in sports this year.
Wow. No, I hadn’t seen that, so I just read the article on irunfar.com. Liked the Twitter commenter who said “I think the lack of heavy t-shirt made the difference. Next person to try will forgo shorts as well I’d imagine.”
It’s vague, but it does include the phrase “that year”, which would seem to rule out career-achievement type awards.
The same way that Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was recognized as part of the 2020 “The Activist Athlete” Sportsman of the Year, even though he didn’t play a single snap of the 2020-21 NFL season - they don’t really care to be constricted by the specific wording of the award, nor should they.
He was however part of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl winning team in 2020.
JJ Watt was co-sportsperson in 2017 with José Altuve for his work raising money in the wake of Hurricane Harvey is really the only recent exception I see.
But the idea that SI wants the award to be “political” (whatever that means) isn’t supported by what they’ve given out so far. I could see if them giving the award to Griner if say, her team had won the finals earlier this year, and she was in Russia protesting the war or something.
The WNBA finals are, in fact, going on right now (their season, unlike the NBA’s, is in the summer); Griner missed the season, due to her imprisonment.
OK, fine, it’s a reach. But I’ll bet there’s at least one SI writer lobbying for her.
Here’s a more conventional guess – three heroes of the LA Rams’ Super Bowl win:
Of course I’m not sure how you honor those guys without boy genius coach Sean McVay. And yes, SI has probably honored too many football players anyway.
Also, it’s not like Griner went to Russia to protest human rights and was imprisoned for that. She was there to make money for a Russian employer. She is clearly a victim and a political pawn but hardly worthy of that particular award.
Yeah and even there, Altuve was the AL MVP and the Astros had just won the Series (this was before anything had come out about the sign stealing).
They really like their champions, one way or another. It’s not a strict rule, but the closest thing to a sure bet is somebody associated with a championship or series of huge wins or gold medal or something similar.
You have to go back to 2007 when Brett Favre was very like to retire and it was given out as more or less a Lifetime Achievement Award to a Hall of Fame caliber player who would never win a championship. Or maybe 2014 for Peyton Manning (he personally had won a Superbowl before though lost the big game in 2014 itself).
And before that to '98 with the McGwire/Sosa homerun derby.
Ohtani may well win it one day, but it’s unlikely until and unless the Angels at least win a pennant.
Favre won the Super Bowl in 1996.
As a lifelong Packer fan, who spent that entire game with my stomach tied up in knots…I approve this message.
Am I right that Roger Federer never was given it? He’s retiring soon and it is incredible that a man with his quarterfinal and semifinal records and all that he did, he’s one of the sportsmen of the past 20 years.
D’oh! I forgot about that Super Bowl. Clearly I’m not a Packers fan.
Yup. And he’s got a decent shot at it, even if he’s not American. There are vanishingly few non-American athletes that most Americans would even recognize, and Federer is one of them.
What did Arthur Ashe do to deserve it in 1992, as opposed to in the 1970s?
Because not being American prevented Sammy Sosa (1998) and Jose Altuve (2017) in what way, exactly? As long as it’s in one of the major sports, the “Americans are preferred” policy doesn’t tend to apply.
Hmmm…Hank Aaron never got the award, even when he hit #715. Then again, he broke it in 1974, and Ali got it for the Rumble in the Jungle against Foreman, whereas nobody, except maybe Griner, “sticks out” as a frontrunner.
Unfortunately, the circumstances that led to Arthur Ashe receiving it had nothing to do with tennis.
Yes, I didn’t go through the entire history of Sportsperson of the year. Your example is 30 years old.
As there seem to be no stand-out candidates for accomplishments this year, a joint award to Roger Federer and Serena Williams would seem a reasonable choice. It would clearly be a lifetime achievement award rather than based on 2022, but they have both retired after GOAT careers (yes, debatable for Federer due to his amazing competitors Rafa and Novak).