The five most emotional, meaningful ESPY Award moments of all time

The ESPYs have provided some of the sports world's most compelling moments over the years, encapsulating seasons and memories from each sports year with moving speeches and bigger-than-sports moments. 

This year's 27th edition of the ESPY awards in Los Angeles, hosted by Tracy Morgan, is sure to showcase a bundle of powerful moments. Bill Russell is set to win the Arthur Ashe Courage award, Rob Mendez — a football coach without arms or legs — is slated to take home the Jimmy V Award, and the World Cup-winning U.S. women's soccer team will be up for the best team award. 

USA TODAY Sports highlights the five most emotional and meaningful moments in the award show's rich history: 

1. Jimmy V's speech (1993) 

Beloved college basketball coach Jim Valvano inspired a nation with his words at the 1993 inaugural show, providing words that are now etched on sports statues and t-shirts. Valvano, who went on to die from cancer less than two months later, told everyone to laugh, think, and cry each day, punctuating it with: "don’t give up, don’t ever give up."

He added: "Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever."

His speech helped launch the V Foundation For Cancer Research, ultimately saving millions of lives. 

2. Stuart Scott's speech (2014)

The Jimmy V Award has lent itself to some powerful speeches over the years, and the words delivered by ESPN and SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott (best known for his catchphrase "boo yah") were truly Jimmy V-esque. Scott, who went on to die less than six months after his 2014 speech, told his teenage daughters, Taelor and Sydni, in the audience: "I love you guys more than I will ever be able to express. You two are my heartbeat. I am standing on this stage here tonight because of you."

He then addressed a nation: "When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live."

3. Pat Summit's Arthur Ashe Courage Award (2012)

After being diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the late University of Tennessee women's basketball coach embraced everyone in the crowd by explaining how she was battling the illness, "I've always said you win in life with people. And I have been so blessed to have great people in my life. ... And it is time to fight. As I ask all of you to join me together so we will win." The winningest coach in women's basketball history died at 64 in 2016. 

4. LeBron and Co.'s Black Lives Matter moment (2016)

LeBron James and fellow NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade challenged the nation at the start of the '16 ESPYs with a message that addressed the country's "racial divide." Paul, a nephew of a police officer, mentioned the black lives that have been lost (Trayvon Martin to Alton Sterling) before noting that Muhammad Ali "set a model for what athletes should stand for." James closed with, "It's time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves: What are we doing to create change?"

Before Colin Kaepernick began to kneel during the national anthem and before James was infamously told to "shut up and dribble" by a Fox News host, this was an example of four prominent black athletes making a plea for unity to stop racial suffering and to stop turning a blind eye to it. 

5. Caitlyn Jenner's Arthur Ashe Courage Award (2015). This was more about the actual moment than her speech — a visible, former Olympic gold medalist who had transitioned from male to female and found peace after years of self-hatred from the demons of gender dysphoria. Jenner, dressed in a white dress, showed a version of courage that challenged viewers' perceptions and helped destigmatize what it means to be transgender. While Michael Sam's speech the year before was meaningful for the gay movement in sports, Jenner's was transcendent in that it called to mind what Arthur Ashe stood for: breaking societal barriers. 

Following a powerful essay by ESPN that captured the agony of Jenner's life as a male icon and the freedom of her authenticity after transitioning, Jenner then spoke from the heart by challenging people to accept others' differences and open their hearts to the struggling transgender community by noting, "this is not something people have to die over," before adding, "if you want to call me names, I can take it."