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Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - Printable Version

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Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - cardcrimson - 12-27-2018

Lebron and Serena take the honors. Guess winning isn't important anymore.

And to keep it Stanford related, Katie had a pretty good year:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/sports/review-katie-ledecky-queen-of-the-2018-winter-national-championships/article/538110

Luck is poised to be NFL Comeback Player of the Year and even Tiger Woods finished 2nd in the Fed Ex Cup Standings.

Somebody. Please. Help me understand.

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - winflop - 12-28-2018

(12-27-2018, 08:59 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:  Lebron and Serena take the honors. Guess winning isn't important anymore.

And to keep it Stanford related, Katie had a pretty good year:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/sports/review-katie-ledecky-queen-of-the-2018-winter-national-championships/article/538110

Luck is poised to be NFL Comeback Player of the Year and even Tiger Woods finished 2nd in the Fed Ex Cup Standings.

Somebody. Please. Help me understand.

An explanation would require violating board rules.

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - OutsiderFan - 12-28-2018

Didn't Serena win two GS titles in 2018, following almost dying after her child birth?

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - Lorcan - 12-28-2018

(12-28-2018, 07:33 AM)OutsiderFan Wrote:  Didn't Serena win two GS titles in 2018, following almost dying after her child birth?

Serena hasn’t won a grand slam since playing Doubles against Venus with her child in Aussie 2017. 

Last years winners were mainly first time winners with Caroline Wozniacki, Simona Halep, and Naomi Osaka breaking through.  Angelique Kerber also won Wimbledon.

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - BostonCard - 12-28-2018

Whatever one might think about a Serena and LeBron, “loser” is not typically front of mind.  I get that maybe the last year didn’t end with them at the top of their sport, but Serena does have 23 grand slam championships, which is 23 more than I or you will ever have.  James has won the NBA title three times, which again, is three more rings than you or I will ever win.

I’d love to be a loser like either of them.

BC

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - cardcrimson - 12-28-2018

(12-28-2018, 09:24 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote:  
(12-27-2018, 08:59 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:  Lebron and Serena take the honors. Guess winning isn't important anymore.

And to keep it Stanford related, Katie had a pretty good year:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/sports/review-katie-ledecky-queen-of-the-2018-winter-national-championships/article/538110

Luck is poised to be NFL Comeback Player of the Year and even Tiger Woods finished 2nd in the Fed Ex Cup Standings.

Somebody. Please. Help me understand.

What's your beef with Luck probably being named Comeback Player of the Year? He missed last year, and he's been great this year in leading his team to the verge of the playoffs. That isn't a good comeback?  Who's your preferred candidate?

No beef at all with Luck being Comeback Player of the Year. Quite the contrary (though the guy from Houston is deserving as well). Three ex-Stanford athletes had great years yet the AP trots out the usual athletes . . . .
(12-28-2018, 09:00 AM)BostonCard Wrote:  Whatever one might think about a Serena and LeBron, “loser” is not typically front of mind.  I get that maybe the last year didn’t end with them at the top of their sport, but Serena does have 23 grand slam championships, which is 23 more than I or you will ever have.  James has won the NBA title three times, which again, is three more rings than you or I will ever win.

I’d love to be a loser like either of them.

BC

What DO you call someone that doesn't win? Yes, they've both had spectacular careers, but the award isn't a life time achievement award.

Lebron finished fourth in MVP voting in his own sport, yet the AP anoints him Sportsman of the Year covering all sports (again). Serena has a nice story over the last year, but Ledecky has dominated her sport yet again. . . .

JJ Watt really deserved the recognition (imho) . Great comeback this year, and contributed millions and organized millions more for relief efforts for those impacted by Houston's hurricane.

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - ColoradoTree - 12-28-2018

(12-27-2018, 08:59 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:  Lebron and Serena take the honors. Guess winning isn't important anymore.

And to keep it Stanford related, Katie had a pretty good year:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/sports/review-katie-ledecky-queen-of-the-2018-winter-national-championships/article/538110

Luck is poised to be NFL Comeback Player of the Year and even Tiger Woods finished 2nd in the Fed Ex Cup Standings.

Somebody. Please. Help me understand.

LeBron is the best male athlete in the world, and Serena is the best female athlete in the world. That's probably why they won the awards for best male and female athlete, respectively. 

Katie would have been a fine choice, sure. And she did win last year. But what Serena did in coming back last year was breathtakingly good. She had no business competing at that level, and she fought her way to the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals. In a year where, as Lorcan noted, there were four different Grand Slam winners, no one stood out as having the best year in women's tennis. In both of those runs to the final, I was just stunned at how she was doing this with obviously inadequate training time. So, sure, she didn't win a Grand Slam last year. I still thought what she did was the most impressive year of any woman on tour. Do you give it to Halep, the only other player to make two Grand Slam finals last year?  Serena didn't play the Australian and withdrew due to injury early on in the French. In the two Grand Slams where they both participated fully, Serena did better, so it's hard to say Halep was more impressive. Putting it in the context of returning after giving birth is impressive as well. It's incredibly rare to come back and reach the same level you were before. Kim Clijsters did it impressively back in '09, but the last player before her to win a Grand Slam after giving birth was Margaret Court in 1972, which was a different world in women's tennis. Other women athletes may have had better results, but I don't think any woman had a more impressive athletic year than Serena did. And that's good enough for me. 

And LeBron is one person who plays a team sport. I thought he was the best player in the NBA last year, and his team lost to the Warriors in the finals because, shockingly, the Warriors had several more good players than the Cavs did. It would have been a joke if the NBA or the AP gave the Cavs the "Best Team" award after they lost in the Finals, but they didn't do that, so that's a relief. Sometimes the best player in the league isn't on the best team in the league. And due to the crazy athleticism evident in the NBA every night, the best player in the NBA is easily on the shortlist for best male athlete around. But who's the alternative? Andrew Luck has been great, but he hasn't had the most impressive year for a quarterback, and his team probably won't even win its division, so how do we make him the greatest male athlete? (And I say this as the guy who makes the "he's most VALUABLE because he's more essential to his team's success than any other player" argument to anyone who will listen.) And Tiger Woods, as you note, finished 2nd in the standings of his individual sport. (I actually think there's a case to be made for Tiger similar to Serena--the comeback is half of what makes the actual achievements so impressive.) Every time I see LeBron play, I marvel that I get to watch the greatest athlete I've ever seen. 

I mean, this is just a little award voted on by AP sports editors as to which man and which woman were the most impressive athletes of the year. The games, matches, and tournaments all still happened the same way. The NBA Finals still turned out the same way. It's all gonna be ok.

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - 2006alum - 12-28-2018

+1 to everything CoTree just said. To me, the metric is, who does the AP cover the most in 2018? Who's the biggest name, the most relevant, the most likely to generate headlines as an athlete. There's no question Serena is that for women's sports. I doubt Katie Ledecky has 30 percent name recognition nationally, notwithstanding her amazing accomplishments. Simone Biles was runner up, and I think she had a credible case to be AP Athlete of the Year between her athletic accomplishments and her influence on reforming US gymnastics. I'd have been OK with either winning. 

LeBron's closest competitor in my mind was Tiger, because I think Tiger came very close to being as newsworthy at times this year, but the pull of LeBron is undeniable. Look at how extreme the role reversal has been for the Cavs and Lakers all because one player decided to swap teams. As many people follow his Instagram as follow the president on Twitter. There hasn't been an athlete with his level of impact on and off the court since Jordan, and in the social media era we now live in, LeBron has a far greater capacity to influence.

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - 82lsju - 12-28-2018

(12-27-2018, 08:59 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:  Lebron and Serena take the honors. Guess winning isn't important anymore.

And to keep it Stanford related, Katie had a pretty good year:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/sports/review-katie-ledecky-queen-of-the-2018-winter-national-championships/article/538110

Luck is poised to be NFL Comeback Player of the Year and even Tiger Woods finished 2nd in the Fed Ex Cup Standings.

Somebody. Please. Help me understand.

well Ledecky did win in 2017....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Press_Athlete_of_the_Year

RE: Losers Named AP Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. - Phogge - 12-28-2018

Molinari had a better year than James.