The 2026 ESPYS Best Play award is a race between the year's most iconic sports moments, and OG Anunoby's title-clinching tip-in for the Knicks is the runaway on Kalshi's board. The nominee slate spans four leagues, from UConn's buzzer-beater over Duke to Team USA's Olympic golden goal and Caleb Williams' game-tying touchdown. Fans pick the winner, revealed live on ESPN on July 15, 2026. The live board above tracks where the race stands.
The Best Play ESPY is a fan-voted award, handed out since 2002, that crowns the single best play of the sports year across the major pro leagues, college, and the Olympics. The 2026 ESPYS Best Play field is stacked with all-timers, and Kalshi's board has one clear runaway: OG Anunoby's tip-in that clinched Game 4 of the NBA Finals for the New York Knicks. Five real plays and a tie option share the ballot, and the winner is revealed on ESPN on July 15, 2026.
OG Anunoby's tip-in is the play to beat. Trailing the San Antonio Spurs by 29 points in the third quarter of Game 4, the Knicks staged the largest comeback in NBA Finals history and won 107-106 at Madison Square Garden. Anunoby tipped in a missed Jalen Brunson three with roughly a second left, after blocking a Spurs shot moments earlier, and pushed New York to a 3-1 series lead on the way to its first title since 1973. That combination of stakes and improbability is why it sits alone at the top of the Kalshi board, and it is the reason the Best NBA Player ESPY 2026 odds lean the same direction.
Braylon Mullins' buzzer-beater is the closest thing to a challenger. The UConn freshman stole an inbounds pass and buried a 35-foot logo three with 0.3 seconds left to stun Duke 73-72 in the Elite Eight, capping a rally from a 19-point first-half hole and sending the Huskies to their eighth Final Four. Mullins arrived as Indiana's 2025 Mr. Basketball and a McDonald's All-American, and March Madness buzzer-beaters have a long history of playing well with the ESPYS voting base.
Team USA's Golden Goal for Gold headlines the Olympic entries. At the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games, Jack Hughes scored 1 minute 41 seconds into three-on-three overtime to beat Canada 2-1 and win the United States its first men's hockey gold since the 1980 Miracle on Ice, 46 years to the day. A golden goal that ends a 46-year drought is exactly the kind of moment that carries a national voting story.
Caleb Williams' game-tying touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams rounds out the marquee names. The Chicago Bears quarterback delivered the throw as his signature highlight of the NFL season, and Chicago's national audience gives it a floor with the ESPYS electorate even as it trails the basketball plays on the board. Williams also anchors the Best NFL Player ESPY 2026 market. A second Golden Goal entry and a tie option fill out the six-way ballot.
The Best Play ESPY history is a highlight reel of its own, and the recent winners set the bar this year's field is chasing. In 2025, Saquon Barkley's reverse hurdle for the Philadelphia Eagles took the award. In 2024, Lamar Jackson won for catching his own batted pass against the Kansas City Chiefs. In 2023, Justin Jefferson's one-handed "catch of the century" for the Minnesota Vikings claimed it. In 2022, Megan Rapinoe's goal scored directly off a corner kick for the United States women's national team was the pick.
Go back further and the award rewards the same mix of stakes and difficulty. There was no Best Play ESPY in 2020 because the ceremony was reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi's perfect-10 floor routine won after going viral. In 2018, Arike Ogunbowale's buzzer-beater to win the national championship for Notre Dame took the honor. Across more than two decades, buzzer-beaters, Olympic moments, and championship-defining plays have dominated the winners' list, which is the lens to read the 2026 ESPYS Best Play field through.
The 2026 ESPYS Best Play winner is announced live during the ESPYS ceremony on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, on ESPN, airing at 8pm ET from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The award is decided by fan vote, not a panel, so the ballot closes ahead of the show and the result is read out that night. The market resolves the same evening to whichever play is named the winner.
The Best Play race sits alongside the rest of the 2026 ESPYS board. Compare it with the Best Team ESPY 2026 odds, the Best Men's Athlete ESPY 2026 market, and the Best MLB Player ESPY 2026 odds. For the full slate of live award and event contracts, the entertainment prediction markets hub and the broader sports prediction markets hub collect every ESPYS contender in one place.
The 2026 ESPYS Best Play market resolves to the play that wins the Best Play award at the ESPYS ceremony on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, broadcast live on ESPN from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The winner is chosen by public fan vote and announced during the show, which is the source of truth for settlement. Each nominated-play contract pays $1 per share if that play is named Best Play, and all other contracts resolve to $0. If the ceremony is postponed or the award is not presented, the contract settles per the platform's official rules.
As of July 11, 2026, Kalshi's board has OG Anunoby's Finals tip-in as the runaway favorite at 87c, with UConn's Braylon Mullins buzzer-beater the nearest challenger and the Olympic golden goal, Caleb Williams' touchdown, and the remaining entries far behind. See the live board above for the latest prices.
It resolves on the night of the ESPYS ceremony, Wednesday, July 15, 2026, which airs on ESPN at 8pm ET from the Dolby Theatre. The fan-voted winner is announced during the show and the market settles that evening.
The 2026 ESPYS Best Play market trades on Kalshi under the KXESPYS series, where each nominated play is a separate contract. The live board above lists every nominee and its current price.
OG Anunoby's game-winning tip-in for the Knicks is the clear favorite. It clinched Game 4 of the NBA Finals off the largest comeback in Finals history and set up New York's first championship since 1973, giving it the biggest stakes-and-difficulty story on the ballot.
Watch which highlights are still circulating on social feeds and how the college-basketball and hockey fanbases mobilize, since the July 15, 2026 award is a public fan vote and turnout can tighten or widen the gap behind OG Anunoby.