ESPY Awards - Jason McElwain
 

First of all, had a chance to rail ChipFish on the 350-20 Stars tourney. ... tough break, losing that 7-7 race ... (nicest "sigh" I've ever seen, by the way ...).

Anyhow, spending the night at the girlfriend's and I"m seven beers in (in two hours) after a riveting night of tournament Scrabble, so bear with me ... Anyone here watch the ESPYs tonight? Lance did a fine job, but the only reason I watched was to see that Jason McElwain kid (autistic kid who scored 20 points in four minutes on the basketball court) win Best Moment. I knew he would win because of the AP story that ran about four days ago.

It ended up being one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Kid wins, totally shocked. Runs up to stage, pulls out an 8-1/2x11 piece of paper and starts spouting off thank-yous. You could see the paper shaking in his hand. At the end of his speech (maybe 45 seconds, if that), he says, AND THANK YOU GOD, in maybe the most assertive, passionate voice I've ever heard.

Look. I go to church when I can. My girlfriend encourages me to go a lot more than I ever thought I would. I'm a Christian, but far from a Jesus freak. But think, for a moment, about how many times you've seen pro athletes thank God for their talent, their paycheck, their girl, etc. ... And then watch this kid.
If someone, anyone, on this forum watched that kid up on stage tonight, I challenge you: tell me it wasn't the most fulfilling thing you've ever seen. It brought tears to my girlfriend's eyes. It nearly did to mine. Probably should have, too. I don't have an excuse.

...

And if you haven't seen it, I'm sure you can YouTube it pretty soon.

Didn't see it, but that clip was one of the coolest things ever posted on this site. pshabi posts it back in the day. Here's a link:


I'm really glad he won. That's just.... awesome.

Oh man, the clip has been removed. Well, here's all sorts of coverage of the story:


I'm gonna watch these again right now.

Fuck, I've cried god knows how many times watching that. Worth it everytime.

The speech should be on ESPN sometime in the next 15 minutes or so. They're replaying the ESPYs.

hasselhoff fucking with your brain huh

i would love to see an unedited clip of his entire performance in that game. anyone know if that is floating around online somewhere?

if anything else even came close in the voting for the best moment, i would have been shocked. that is such an emotional thing to see, and I have the same reaction everytime. I even liked the commercial with Kobe in it (even though I hate Kobe), where he describes seeing it happen.

I thought that Dakota Dowd thing was pretty cool, too ... especially when you consider she was only a couple of shots off the lead after the first round.
Background: Dakota's 13, her mom is terminally ill with cancer, and always wanted to see her daughter play in an LPGA event. Dakota got a sponsor's exemption and played in the tournament.

But what made the McElwain thing the shoo-in winner was the fact that the kid had NEVER PLAYED in a high school game. EVER. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment, not just for him, but for anyone who got to see it.

I'm man enough to admit that I cried when I saw it the first time, and when I watched the ESPY's