No Athlete Had a Better 2015 Than Novak Djokovic

Next week, Sports Illustrated will announce its 2015 Sportsman of the Year. The magazine’s editors cannot have had an easy time choosing a winner. When was there last a year like this? There was Steph Curry, leading the Golden State Warriors to the N.B.A. championship with his dizzying crossovers and quick-release threes, and carrying himself with that Bay-vibe relaxed exuberance of his: the most winning of winners. How about the emergence of Jordan Spieth? At twenty-two, he ended the year as the world’s No. 1 golfer, having won two majors, including the Masters (where he finished a record-tying 18-under), and, along the way, treated us to numerous, intimately coaxing conversations with his just-struck golf balls. Lydia Ko did some incredible golfing this year, too: she became the world’s youngest women’s world No. 1 in February, at seventeen. Ronda Rousey, meanwhile, was named Best Female Athlete Ever in an ESPN poll in May, and was undefeated until, last month, she was kicked in the head and knocked unconscious, a perfectly legal thing to do in her sport of choice, ultimate fighting. And the editors at SI must have given due consideration to American Pharoah, though the acceptance speech would present challenges.