Tiger Wins ESPN's "Who's Now"

For the past month and 5 days, ESPN has been doing a daily series called "Who's Now". ESPN analysts plus viewer votes would determine the ultimate sports star by considering both on-field success and off-field buzz. Based on fan nominations, ESPN Research selected 32 finalists to square off in a single-elimination bracket.

The athletes competed in a single-elimination, bracketed tournament (like the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship or a typical tennis tournament). Each day a winner would be announced on ESPN's SportCenter. Participants were placed in one of four eight-way "regions" named for historic athletes that, in the judgment of ESPN, best exemplify the qualities of "now": Michael Jordan, Billie Jean King, Babe Ruth, and Muhammad Ali. Each bracket would have 8 athletes which were seeded and faced against each other. In the 1st round, the number 1 seed would face the 8 seed, 2 seed would face the 7 seed and so on.

Tiger Woods, Dwyane Wade, LaDainian Tomlinson, Steve Nash, Peyton Manning, Dale Earnhardt Jr., A-Rod, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Jeff Gordon, Derek Jeter, Reggie Bush, Tom Brady, Maria Sharapova, Tony Parker and Shaq all passed the 1st round. Then those players would face off. Every 2 players on the list I just wrote would be matched against each other (Ex- Tiger vs Dwyane, LT vs Steve Nash). Tiger, LT, Peyton Manning, A-Rod, LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Tom Brady and Shaq all went into the 3rd round of the competition. They would face off the same way as last time. The 4 athletes in the semi-finals were Tiger, Peyton Manning, LeBron James and Shaq. In the semi-finals, Tiger was matched up against Peyton and LeBron was matched against Shaq. Tiger won with 63.8% of the viewers votes, and LeBron won with 60.4% of the vote. That meant that Tiger Woods and LeBron James would face off in the final of "Who's Now".

Yesterday, the champion was announced, and by a rather larger amount than most would expect, Tiger Woods beat King James with 65.1% of the vote! I would like to congratulate Tiger Woods on his win and that he does well in the up coming PGA championship. But I really thought that LeBron would win this match up. I think it's safe to say that more people in USA watch basketball than golf. And with Tiger in his little slump in terms of majors, and LeBron leading the Cavs to the NBA Finals, I though James would get the majority of the vote. But, that's just my opinion, what's yours?

Who Would You Have Voted For?

LeBron James
Tiger Woods

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