The Outstanding Team ESPY Award, known alternatively as the Best Team ESPY Award, has been presented annually since 1993 to the professional, collegiate, or national team, irrespective of nationality or sport contested, adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year. In 2001, the award was bifurcated and the resulting honors were styled as the College Team of the Year and Pro Team of the Year ESPY Awards; the awards were joined once more in 2002.

Between 1993 and 2004, the award voting panel comprised variously fans; sportswriters and broadcasters, sports executives, and retired sportspersons, termed collectively experts; and ESPN personalities, but balloting thereafter has been exclusively by fans over the Internet from amongst choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee.

Through the 2001 iteration of the ESPY Awards, ceremonies were conducted in February of each year to honor achievements over the previous calendar year; awards presented thereafter are conferred in June and reflect performance from the June previous.

An ESPY Award (short for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award) is an accolade presented by the American cable television network ESPN to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus months previous. As the similarly-styled Grammy (for music), Emmy (for television), and Academy Award (for film), the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is more relaxed, light, and self-referential than that of many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included. The host for the 2011 ESPYS is Seth Meyers and the head writer is Jonathan Drubner.

From their inception to 2004, ESPY Award winners were chosen only through voting by fans. Since 2004, sportswriters, broadcasters, sports executives, and sportspersons, collectively experts; or ESPN personalities also vote. Award winners have been selected thereafter exclusively through online fan balloting conducted from amongst candidates selected by the ESPY Select Nominating Committee.

Christian Donald Laettner (born August 17, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player, entrepreneur, and basketball coach. He had a distinguished college and national career, and played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for thirteen seasons, from 1992–2005. He was also a minority holder in the Major League Soccer (MLS) club D.C. United from 2007 until 2009, when William Chang bought out the remaining investors to take full control of the club. He is a current assistant coach of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League.

Laettner played college basketball for the Duke University Blue Devils, starring on the 1991 and 1992 NCAA champion teams. He was the only college player selected for the 1992 United States men's Olympic team, nicknamed the "Dream Team." Sometimes considered the greatest team ever assembled in any sport, the Dream Team went on to win the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Laettner was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1992 NBA draft and went on to play 13 seasons in the NBA.

James Taft "Jimmer" Fredette (born February 25, 1989) is an American professional basketball player with the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association. He gained national fame during his collegiate career at Brigham Young University, where he was the leading scorer in all of NCAA Division I basketball during his senior season and earned every major National Player of the Year honor, including the Wooden Award, the Naismith Award, the Adolph Rupp Trophy, and the Oscar Robertson Trophy. Fredette is a native of Glens Falls, New York.

James Taft Fredette was born in Glens Falls, New York to parents Al and Kay Fredette, as the youngest of three children. His mother wanted to call him something unique and nicknamed him "Jimmer".

From his early childhood, Jimmer showed unusual dedication to athletics. His older brother TJ recalled, "He was the most determined, competitive four-year-old I had ever seen." TJ helped Jimmer train for his basketball career since before kindergarten. He regularly played with TJ, seven years older, and TJ's friends on the family's backyard court. Fredette was able to hit three-pointers at age 5, and developed moves to get around his larger opponents. TJ also remembered that his brother "willed himself to find ways to win, even if he was physically outmatched. From the time he was 10, I was telling everybody he was going to make the NBA."

Kyle Maynard (March 24, 1986) is a speaker, author and ESPY Award-winning mixed martial arts athlete, known for achieving all this despite being a congenital amputee.

Maynard works as a speaker for the Washington Speaker's Bureau, specializing in motivational speeches. He is the author of the memoir No Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life . He has been featured on talk shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live.

Maynard has trained in mixed martial arts (MMA). A documentary film, A Fighting Chance, focuses on his MMA efforts. His amateur debut fight was at Auburn Fight Night at the Auburn Covered Arena in Auburn, Alabama on April 25, 2009. He lost his first mixed martial arts fight to Bryan Fry on a unanimous 30–27 judges' decision. Maynard received the ESPN Espy Award for Best Athlete With A Disability in 2004. He attended the University of Georgia, but was forced to put his undergraduate education on hold due to the high demands of his motivational speaking career. He has modeled for clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch.^{[citation needed]} Kyle Maynard is also the owner of No Excuses Crossfit gym located in Suwanee, GA.