Naomi Osaka just maintained an impressive streak of hers. With Osaka being nominated for the 2024 BET Awards Sportswoman of the Year award, the four-time Grand Slam champion has been shortlisted as a contender for the same accolade every year since 2019. However, the Japanese superstar receiving recognition for her 2023 season hasn’t sat well with the tennis community.
Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff are two tennis players to be nominated for the prestigious Sportswoman of the Year award. Gauff had an extremely impressive 2023 season, winning four titles (including the US Open) and accumulating almost $7 million in prize money. But Osaka seems to have impressed the jury mainly for her comeback into the sport from pregnancy and championing off-court causes rather than her on-court performances.
Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff both nominated for BET’s Sportswoman of the Year Award
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 17, 2024
Due to her maternity leave, Osaka didn’t participate in any tournaments in 2023. Hence, fans are truly justified in expressing their concerns about the former World No.3’s inclusion.
Coco….well deserved. Fantastic end of season run. World #3.
Naomi being nominated minimizes the value of the award. Skin color appears to be the only prerequisite and not merit.
What has Naomi done last year or this year?
If she was getting nominated for her achievements…
— Trudy Seivwright MD (@SeivwrightTrudy) May 17, 2024
Osaka doesn’t deserve to even be nominated.
— Dr. Paco Hinton Jr Podcaster (@DrPacoHinton) May 17, 2024
Naomi hardly has played entire year. Unfair
— sp (@sanjayp_1) May 17, 2024
This is what happens when you start distinguishing people by race instead of merit or talent. At some point, you’ll find yourself hyping mediocrity and telling everyone it’s excellence.
— Cuberro22 (@cuberro22) May 17, 2024
Angel Reese winning the award in 2023 did make a lot of sense. The college phenom led the LSU Tigers to a national championship and Reese was also a huge reason behind women’s basketball gaining a lot of popularity. However, Osaka winning the award in 2021 and 2022 wasn’t justified either.
In the 2020 and 2021 seasons, Naomi had a combined 36-13 record, per Tennis Live. In the 12 tournaments that she participated in, Osaka won merely 2 titles in the three finals appearances that she had.
For the same reasons, sports enthusiasts have a reason to believe the BET Awards is partial and doesn’t truly award athletes on the basis of merit. This sentiment exists even though the likes of Serena Williams have won the BET Sportswoman of the Year award a whopping 16 times.
Serena Williams Won Her 16th BET Award in 2019
No other athlete has won more BET Awards than Serena Williams. Serena Williams won the award 7/10 times in the 2000s and 9/10 times in the 2010s. Being named Sportswoman of the Year in 2019 was her final time receiving the award.
On June 23 2019, the BET Awards took place in Los Angeles with Regina Hall hosting the glamorous event. As expected, some of the biggest names, i.e. Drake, Rihanna, Stephen Curry, Regina King, and many others from different walks of life were part of the event.
Cardi B lit the event up by performing on stage as well as winning two awards, i.e. Album of the Year & Best Female Hip Hop Artist. However, Serena Williams received a standing ovation for winning the accolade for a record 16th time.
