Three major trophies and a chance to win the calendar-year Grand Slam were enough for Serena Williams to snag AP Female Athlete of the Year honors for 2015. Three major trophies but a much earlier loss at the slam level were not enough Novak Djokovic to be the male recipient.
NBA star Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was named AP Male Athlete of the Year on Saturday. Djokovic finished off the proverbial podium, as Triple Crown winner American Pharoah placed second (despite receiving the most first-place votes) and golfer Jordan Spieth–who captured two major titles–was third.
“That’s a real honor,” Curry said. “I’m appreciative of that acknowledgement because it’s across all different sports…. It’s pretty cool.”
The former Davidson College standout led his team to the 2014-15 NBA title and is currently an overwhelming favorite to repeat as league MVP.
“The thing I would say about Steph what makes him who he is, is that nobody has to challenge him to get to the next level because he does it on his own,” Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr explained. “I didn’t think he could get that much better from last year but I do think he’s gotten considerably better, which is quite a feat when you’re the reigning MVP.”
On the tennis court, the question is if Djokovic can get any better than he was in 2015. This past season, the top-ranked Serb triumphed at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. Only at the French Open–in the final–did he succumb in surprising fashion to Stan Wawrinka.
Djokovic won every single tournament he entered dating back to the start of the U.S. Open and he capped off his year in style with a triumph at the World Tour Finals in London. He lost to Federer during round-robin action at that event but bounced back to beat the Swiss in the final.
I checked the history of the AP award and since its inception in 1931, only 5 non-American males have won it & only 2 male tennis players: Don Budge in ’37/’38 and JMac in ’81. I’m guessing it would take at least a calendar Grand Slam for a non-American to have a good chance of winning it (as well as no great achievements by Americans in other sports in the same year). Budge won the CGS in ’38, but even Laver doing it in ’62 and ’69 didn’t get him the award. In ’62, it was won by Maury Wills and in ’69 it was won by Tom Seaver.
Ricky- When are the predictions of slam winners and Year end rankings for 2016 coming up? The site has become boring with no action, need some debates 🙂
No different than SI in terms of always picking Americans.
What a “coincidence” that 95% of winners just happen to be from US.
Such a sports superpower lol.
Why has the US lost interest in tennis since Agassi/Sampras? Because they’re no good at it anymore.
So wrapped up in themselves.
Nothing new.
The AP is an American news agency, owned by the various American media that contribute to it (TV and radio stations, newspapers). Same with SI…it’s an American company. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the sports played by the winners have nearly always been among the sports that are popular in the U.S., mostly football, baseball, basketball, golf, and yes, the occasional appearance of tennis, swimming, cycling, etc, if an American has excelled at it. Soccer and cricket players, despite the two sports being the most popular in the world, have never won the award. But wrapped up in themselves? Nah, they’re just reflecting the bias of their viewership/readership. Any award or recognition of this nature always has to be viewed within the context of its source.
That’s the same statement. It backs up what I said as opposed to refuting it.
That was the point of the comment: to essentially make the same statement in addition to providing an explanation for the results: an explanation sans the insults.
In other words, Americans are wrapped up in themselves QED. 🙂
http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/djokovic-infosys-december-2015
Djokovic is by far a more complete player than Curry. Kawhi Leonard has a better 3 point shooting percentage than Curry (in fact, KL leds the league in 3 point percentage this season) – AND this is on top of the fact that he’s the reigning defensive player of the year. Is Curry great? Absolutely. Is he fun to watch? Sure. But to look at this clinically and impartially (the lack of the latter being noted by others above), Djokovic comes out on top; his record speak for itself.
no he isn’t