BET Award for Sportsman of the Year

The BET Award for Sportsman of the Year is given to the best and most successful male athlete of the previous year. The award was originally titled Best Male Athlete, but was later changed to its current title in 2010. LeBron James holds the record for most wins in this category with nine.

BET Awards for Sportsman of the Year
Jalen Hurts is the most recent recipient
Country	United States
Presented by	BET Awards
First award	2001
Currently held by	Jalen Hurts (2025)
Most wins	LeBron James (9)
Most nominations	LeBron James (21)
Website

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

2000s

Year	Sportsman	Ref
2001
	Allen Iverson	[1]
	Kobe Bryant
	Shaquille O'Neal
	Tiger Woods
2002
	Kobe Bryant	[2]
	Allen Iverson
	Derek Jeter
	Michael Jordan
	Tiger Woods
2003
	Kobe Bryant	[3]
	Barry Bonds
	Allen Iverson
	Tracy McGrady
	Tiger Woods
2004
	LeBron James	[4]
	Carmelo Anthony
	Barry Bonds
	Shaquille O'Neal
	Tiger Woods
2005
	Shaquille O'Neal	[5]
	Allen Iverson
	LeBron James
	Donovan McNabb
	Tiger Woods
2006
	LeBron James	[6]
	Kobe Bryant
	Shaquille O'Neal
	Tiger Woods
	Vince Young
2007
	LeBron James	[7]
	Reggie Bush
	Floyd Mayweather Jr.
	Dwyane Wade
	Tiger Woods
2008
	Kobe Bryant	[8]
	LeBron James
	Floyd Mayweather Jr.
	Chris Paul
	Tiger Woods
2009
	LeBron James	[9]
	Kobe Bryant
	Reggie Bush
	Dwyane Wade
	Tiger Woods

2010s

Year	Sportsman	Ref
2010
	LeBron James	[10]
	Carmelo Anthony
	Usain Bolt
	Kobe Bryant
	Tiger Woods
2011
	Michael Vick	[11]
	Carmelo Anthony
	Kobe Bryant
	LeBron James
	Derrick Rose
2012
	Kevin Durant	[12]
	Carmelo Anthony
	Kobe Bryant
	Victor Cruz
	LeBron James
2013
	LeBron James	[13]
	Victor Cruz
	Kevin Durant
	Robert Griffin III
	Ray Lewis
2014
	Kevin Durant	[14]
	Carmelo Anthony
	Blake Griffin
	LeBron James
	Floyd Mayweather Jr.
2015
	Stephen Curry	[15]
	LeBron James
	Marshawn Lynch
	Floyd Mayweather Jr.
	Chris Paul
2016
	Stephen Curry	[16]
	Odell Beckham Jr.
	Kobe Bryant
	LeBron James
	Cam Newton
2017
	Stephen Curry	[17]
	Odell Beckham Jr.
	LeBron James
	Cam Newton
	Russell Westbrook
2018
	LeBron James	[18]
	Dwyane Wade
	Odell Beckham Jr.
	Stephen Curry
	Kevin Durant
2019
	Stephen Curry	[19]
	Kevin Durant
	LeBron James
	Odell Beckham Jr.
	Tiger Woods

2020s

Year	Sportsman	Ref
2020
	LeBron James	[20]
	Giannis Antetokounmpo
	Kawhi Leonard
	Odell Beckham Jr.
	Patrick Mahomes II
	Stephen Curry
2021
	LeBron James	[21]
	Kyrie Irving
	Patrick Mahomes II
	Russell Westbrook
	Russell Wilson
	Stephen Curry
2022
	Stephen Curry	[22]
	Aaron Donald
	Bubba Wallace
	Giannis Antetokounmpo
	Ja Morant
	LeBron James
2023
	Jalen Hurts
	Aaron Judge
	Bubba Wallace
	Gervonta Davis
	LeBron James
	Patrick Mahomes II
	Stephen Curry
2024
	Jalen Brunson
	Anthony Edwards
	Gervonta Davis
	Jalen Hurts
	Kyrie Irving
	LeBron James
	Patrick Mahomes II
	Stephen Curry

Controversy

Some of the nominations have brought up some controversy. Reggie Bush was nominated for the award twice, in 2007 and 2009, despite putting up average numbers for a player at his position in both those seasons. In both years, he was nominated among athletes who were considered the best of the best in their sports, which upset some sports fans, as Bush has not accomplished enough to be in the same list as them.

Multiple wins and nominations

Wins

9 wins LeBron James 5 wins Stephen Curry 3 wins Kobe Bryant

2 wins Kevin Durant

Nominations

21 nominations LeBron James 10 nominations Kobe Bryant Stephen Curry Tiger Woods 5 nominations Carmelo Anthony Odell Beckham Jr. 4 nominations Allen Iverson Patrick Mahomes II Floyd Mayweather Jr. Shaquille O'Neal

3 nominations Kevin Durant 2 nominations Giannis Antetokounmpo Barry Bonds Reggie Bush Victor Cruz Gervonta Davis Jalen Hurts Kyrie Irving Cam Newton Chris Paul Dwyane Wade Bubba Wallace

See also

• BET Award for Sportswoman of the Year