2024 ESPY Awards: Serena Williams Opens With Harry and Meghan Jokes (Live Updates)

GloRilla and Draymond Green took the stage first to present the award for Best Breakthrough Athlete to University of South Carolina basketball star JuJu Watkins.

“I wanna thank all the great and powerful women that came before me and made this possible,” Watkins said in her acceptance speech after thanking her family and teammates. “I share this with all of you.”

Host Serena Williams opened the ESPYs by poking fun at the royal presence.

“Please, Harry and Meghan, try not to breathe too much tonight. Because this is my night. And I don’t want to be overshadowed by the accusations that you guys are taking up too much oxygen.”

Pat Tillman was playing linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, motivated him to enlist in the United States Army. After he was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in April 2004, the ESPYs recognized him with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award before creating another honor in his name.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is set to receive this year’s Pat Tillman Award, in honor of his service in the British Armed Forces, as well as his ongoing work with the Invictus Games, which allow veterans with both visible and invisible injuries from various countries to compete in Olympic-level athletic competitions. 

However, not everyone is thrilled to see the British royal earning the honor. Tillman’s mother, Mary, told the Daily Mail earlier this month that she was “shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award.”

“There are recipients that are far more fitting,” she continued. “There are individuals working in the veteran community that are doing tremendous things to assist veterans. These individuals do not have the money, resources, connections or privilege that Prince Harry has. I feel that those types of individuals should be recognized.”

Dawn Staley is a six-time WNBA All-Star, a three-time Olympic gold medal winner (adding one more as a coach) and now a three-time NCAA championship coach in women’s basketball — so it feels fitting that she’s earned an award for perseverance. 

The Jimmy V Award is named in honor of North Carolina State University men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano, who brought the ESPYs crowd to its feet when he accepted the 1993 Arthur Ashe Courage Award — before dying from a brutal battle with cancer just two months later.

Staley started her basketball career as a point guard, leading her college team at the University of Virginia to four NCAA tournaments, three Final Fours and one national championship game. She went on to a successful career in the WNBA and with the U.S. Olympic team before transitioning into coaching, where she has won three national championships with the University of South Carolina and another Olympic gold medal, making her one of the most dominant women’s basketball coaches in the game today.

Steve Gleason, a former NFL safety who has become a sports legend on and off the field, will accept the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at this year’s ESPYs.

After an impressive college career in both football and baseball at Washington State University, Gleason was signed by the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2000. He was later signed by the New Orleans Saints, and played six seasons with the team.

Gleason was a part of one of the most impactful plays in Saints history — blocking a punt in a September 2006 game against the Atlanta Falcons, which led to the Saints’ first touchdown in the Superdome following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina — however, it’s been his activism off the field that has made him even more of an inspiration.

In 2011, Gleason revealed that he had been diagnosed with ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease, just weeks before he and his wife, Michel, learned that they were expecting their first child. Now a father of two — son Rivers and daughter Gray — Gleason’s candid depictions of his journey with the degenerative disease have earned him praise and acclaim throughout the sporting world. 

He received the 2015 George Halas Award from the Pro Football Writers Association and, in 2019, became the first NFL player to ever earn the Congressional Gold Medal, for his contributions to ALS awareness. At the 2024 ESPY Awards, he will receive the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, which has previously gone to athletes like Muhammad Ali, Pat Tillman, Robin Roberts, Pat Summit, Maya Moore and more.

In addition to the star-studded list of nominees and presenters, plenty of stars are expected to attend this year’s ESPYs, including Venus Williams, Allen Iverson, Jaylen Brown, Livvy Dunne, Nick Saban, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Chloe Kim, Sugar Ray Leonard, Lisa Leslie, John Owen Lowe, Andy Reid, Isaiah Pacheco, C.J. McCollum, Samm Levine, J.J. McCarthy, Jayden Daniels, Cooper Flagg, Nyjah Huston, Derrick White and more.

Athletes and performers alike will take the stage to present some of the night’s biggest awards, with notable names including Quinta Brunson, Rob Lowe, Daisy Ridley, Colman Domingo, Nikki Glaser, Brian Tyree Henry, Paige Bueckers, Drew Brees, Glorilla, Draymond Green, Lindsey Vonn, Bryce Young, Damar Hamlin and more.

Top nominees at this year’s awards include Simone Biles, Shohei Ohtani, Coco Gauff, Caitlin Clark, and, of course, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

Mahomes is notably nominated for Best Male Athlete for his Super Bowl-winning season, and if he or Ohtani win, they’ll join the elite company of LeBron James, Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods as the only athletes to win the category multiple times.

12-time ESPY winner Serena Williams is hosting this year’s awards. 

In ET’s exclusive sneak peek at this year’s ESPYs, Williams readied fans to “celebrate the best of the best… “The ESPYs are a celebration of excellence.”

The 2024 ESPY Awards air live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Thursday, July 11, at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on ABC.