Comedian gets mixed response at awards ceremony
Simone Biles and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander win main prizes
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 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.”