Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Simone Biles win top honors at ESPYS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles won as best male and female athletes at the ESPYS on Wednesday night.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the NBA championship last month while piling up hardware as league MVP and scoring champion.

“It's a dream come true and for dreams to come true it takes a village,” he said, thanking his wife, parents, brother and others. “Those names probably don't mean much but to me they mean everything.”

Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, claimed the night's first award, best championship performance for her efforts at the Paris Games. She won three golds and a silver while helping the U.S. win its first team title since 2016.

“That was very unexpected, especially in a category of all men,” Biles said after kissing her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens.

She beat out Stephen Curry, Freddie Freeman and Rory McIlroy.

Biles' Olympic teammate, Suni Lee, won the best comeback award for overcoming two rare kidney diseases. She brought one of her doctors to the show.

Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage from point guard Russell Westbrook.

Robertson was president of the NBA Players' Association at the time of a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the NBA in 1970. It led to an extensive reform of the league's strict free agency and draft rules and eventually to higher salaries for all players.

The 86-year-old Robertson, a 12-time All Star known as The Big O during his career, was the first Black president of any sports labor union.

“I knew there was work to do. There was a desperate need for players to have more career security, improved working conditions and other accommodations," he said. “In life, it’s important to be persistent or as I have been called stubborn. Stubborn about what you believe in.”

Comedian Shane Gillis ’ opening monologue as host of the show that honors the past year's top athletes and sports moments went over awkwardly.

Early on, he called out various famous faces in the Dolby Theatre crowd, including retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi. Gillis said, “Give it up for her” after calling her “Deanna.” The camera showed an unsmiling Taurasi shaking her head. Gillis quickly caught his mistake, saying, “My bad on that.”

Gillis moved on to WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, who wasn't on hand.

“When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she's going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist fighting Black women,” he joked.

While some in the audience laughed, others appeared uncomfortable.

Gillis plowed on for 10 minutes, with jokes about President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, whose sex trafficking investigation has roiled the Justice Department and FBI.

Gillis' performance drew mixed reviews on social media, with some calling him “hilarious” and others “cringey.”

Gillis' initial joke about North Carolina coach Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson drew a lot of laughs.

"A bookie is what Bill Belichick reads to his girlfriend before bed time,” he said. “They read ‘The Very Horny Caterpillar,’ 'The Little Engine That Could But Needed a Pill First' and of course the classic ‘Goodnight Boobs.’”

But the laugher lessened as Gillis continued.

"He won six Super Bowls. He’s dating a hot 24 year old. Maybe if you guys won six Super Bowls you wouldn’t be sitting next to a fat ugly dog wife.”

Before closing it out, a smiling Gillis said, "I see a lot of you don’t like me and that’s OK. That's it for me. That went about exactly how we all thought it was going to go. I don't know why this happened.”

Taurasi and retired U.S. national women's soccer team star Alex Morgan shared the Icon Award in recognition of their careers and major impact on sports.

The women touched their trophies together in a toast.

“Our mission has always been very similar,” Morgan said. “We fought to leave our game in a better place than where we found it just as a generation before us did. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Taurasi, who retired in February after a 20-year basketball career, mentioned her parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina. She also had words for the next generation.

“Keep going, don’t wait for someone to hand you anything, outwork them, be loyal, bring that damn fire every day,” she said. “We’re proof you can do it. We did it our way. No shortcuts, no apologies, and no regrets.”

Former athletes David Walters and Erin Regan accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service, given to those who have served in a way that honors the legacy of the former NFL player and U.S. Army Ranger.

Walters, 37, earned a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was a seven-time world championships medalist. He's now a Los Angeles city firefighter.

Regan, 45, was a Wake Forest soccer player who spent one season in the pros before retiring to join the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Both Walters and Regan fought the deadly and destructive wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January.

An emotional Katie Schumacher-Cawley accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance with her husband and children joining in the standing ovation. The Penn State women's volleyball coach was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in September. She continued coaching without missing a practice and became the first woman to guide a team to the NCAA national championship.

“Cancer changed my life but it didn’t take it. It didn’t take my belief, it didn’t take my spirit and it didn’t take my team,” she said.

Basketball player Cameron Boozer and track and field athlete Jane Hedengren were named the Gatorade Best Male and Female Players of the Year.

Boozer will be playing at Duke in the fall, following in the collegiate footsteps of his father, Carlos, a former NBA All-Star.

Hedengren will compete for BYU in her hometown of Provo, Utah.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Katie Schumacher-Cawley accepts the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Alex Morgan, left, and Diana Taurasi react as they accept Icon Awards at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Simone Biles, right, hugs Jonathan Owens while accepting an award at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Freddie Freeman, left, and his wife, Chelsea, arrive at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Russell Wilson, left, and his wife, Ciara, arrive at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander arrives at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sloane Stephens, left, speaks next to Ciara while accepting the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Host Shane Gillis speaks at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Oscar Robertson speaks while being honored with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander smiles after winning the Best Athlete Men's Sports award at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Katie Schumacher-Cawley accepts the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Alex Morgan, left, and Diana Taurasi react as they accept Icon Awards at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Simone Biles, right, hugs Jonathan Owens while accepting an award at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Freddie Freeman, left, and his wife, Chelsea, arrive at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Russell Wilson, left, and his wife, Ciara, arrive at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander arrives at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Sloane Stephens, left, speaks next to Ciara while accepting the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Host Shane Gillis speaks at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis Saturday to protest the fatal shooting of a woman by a federal immigration officer there and the shooting of two protesters in Portland, Oregon, as Minnesota leaders urged demonstrators to remain peaceful.

The Minneapolis gathering was one of hundreds of protests planned in towns and cities across the country over the weekend. It came in a city on edge since the killing of Renee Good on Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

“We’re all living in fear right now,” said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined the protest Saturday. “ICE is creating an environment where nobody feels safe and that’s unacceptable.”

On Friday night, a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel that attracted about 1,000 people turned violent as demonstrators threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Saturday. One officer suffered minor injuries after being struck with a piece of ice, O’Hara said. Twenty-nine people were cited and released, he said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested. He faulted “agitators that are trying to rile up large crowds.”

“This is what Donald Trump wants,” Frey said of the president who has demanded massive immigration enforcement efforts in several U.S. cities. “He wants us to take the bait.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz echoed the call for peace.

“Trump sent thousands of armed federal officers into our state, and it took just one day for them to kill someone,” Walz posted on social media. “Now he wants nothing more than to see chaos distract from that horrific action. Don’t give him what he wants.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities is its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation. Trump's administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defense against drivers who “weaponized” their vehicles to attack officers.

Connor Maloney said he was attending the Minneapolis protest to support his community and because he's frustrated with the immigration crackdown.

“Almost daily I see them harassing people,” he said. “It’s just sickening that it’s happening in our community around us.”

Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to attend a protest in Durham, North Carolina, on Saturday because of the “horrifying” killing of Good in Minneapolis.

“We can’t allow it,” Eubanks said. “We have to stand up.”

Indivisible, a social movement organization that formed to resist the Trump administration, said hundreds of protests were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states.

In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups organized the demonstration that began in a park about half a mile from the residential neighborhood where the 37-year-old Good was shot on Wednesday. Marchers carried signs calling for ICE to leave and voiced support for Good and immigrants.

A couple of miles away, just as the demonstration began, an Associated Press photographer witnessed heavily armed officers — at least one in Border Patrol uniform — approach a person who had been following them. Two of the agents had long guns out when they ordered the person to stop following them, telling him it was his “first and final warning.”

The agents eventually drove onto the interstate without detaining the driver.

Protests held in the neighborhood have been largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that hit Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Near the airport, some confrontations erupted on Thursday and Friday between smaller groups of protesters and officers guarding the federal building used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.

O’Hara said city police officers have responded to calls about cars abandoned because their drivers have been apprehended by immigration enforcement. In one case, the car was left in park and in another case a dog was left in the vehicle.

He said immigration enforcement activities are happening “all over the city” and that 911 callers have been alerting authorities to ICE activity, arrests and abandoned vehicles.

The Trump administration has deployed thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers were taking part.

Some officers moved in after abruptly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of another operation that started last month and was expected to last until February.

Three congresswomen from Minnesota attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building on Saturday morning and were initially allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.

U.S, Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig accused ICE agents of obstructing members of Congress from fulfilling their duty to oversee operations there.

“They do not care that they are violating federal law,” Craig said after being turned away.

A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing policies that limit congressional visits to immigration facilities. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by 12 members of Congress who sued in Washington, D.C. to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities.

Associated Press writers Allen Breed in Durham, North Carolina, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.

People place flowers for a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Friday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Demonstrators march outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Demonstrators march outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rep. Kelly Morrison D-Minn., center, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., second from the right, and Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., far right, at the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference as Police Chief Brian O'Hara listens, on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal agents stand outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal agents stand outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Federal agents look on as protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

A woman holds a sign for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier in the week, as people gather outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Two people sit in the street with their hands up in front of Minnesota State Patrol during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Minnesota State Patrol officers are seen during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Minnesota State Patrol officers are seen during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Two people sit in the street holding hands in front of Minnesota State Patrol during a protest and noise demonstration calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)