And the award goes to ...
— -- The latest batch of Academy Awards will be presented Sunday, but Cavaliers forward LeBron James will not receive an Oscar for his supporting role in "Trainwreck." That's too bad, because he is at least as deserving as Sylvester Stallone, who was nominated for portraying Rocky Balboa, a role he's played seven times.
It's no surprise, though. Actors are often nominated (and sometimes win) for portraying athletes, including Warren Beatty ("Heaven Can Wait"), Robert De Niro ("Raging Bull"), Cuba Gooding Jr. ("Jerry Maguire") and Hilary Swank ("Million Dollar Baby"). But Oscar nominations for athletes in movies? Nope.
Still, even though the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences never recognizes them, the ESPN Academy of Motion Picture Sports and Popcorn Pseudoscience does for these notable athletic performances on the big screen:
best performance
in a leading role
Ray Allen, "He Got Game" (1998)
Unlike so many athlete movie parts, Allen plays a substantial role by portraying Jesus Shuttlesworth, the country's top high school basketball recruit and the son of a convict played by Denzel Washington. Allen shows he has more than just game -- he's got acting chops, too. Allen, as film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "is that rarity, an athlete who can act." In other words, he's no Brett Favre (more on that later)
best performance
in a Cleveland role
LeBron James, "Trainwreck" (2015)
He still hasn't delivered Cleveland the championship for which the city has been waiting decades, but at least he does his best to make the metropolis on the Cuyahoga sound worthy of a visit.
best performance
in a musical role
Mike Tyson, "The Hangover" (2009)
And if you think his karaoke rendition of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" isn't worthy of this award, you'd better take a couple of steps back so you don't end up cold on the floor like Zach Galifianakis.
best performance
in a kick-ass role
Gina Carano, "Haywire" (2011)
The former MMA fighter received a Critics Choice Awards nomination for her starring role in this action thriller, in which she performed her own stunts and pistol-whipped Channing Tatum. Beat that, Ronda Rousey.
best performance
in the worst movie
Ronda Rousey, "Entourage" (2015)
No, Rousey doesn't come close to matching Carano in this appearance by playing herself. But if she had somehow also knocked down the director, producer and everyone who had anything to do with releasing this movie, she might have.
best performances
as a passenger
Babe Ruth, "Speedy" (1928) and "Pride of the Yankees" (1942)
Sure, we don't hear Babe Ruth speak in the Harold Lloyd silent comedy " Speedy," but we do in this train scene in "Pride of the Yankees." (Although it's too bad Babe didn't also reprimand Gary Cooper for not figuring out how to bat left-handed.)
best performance
in a dying role
Jim Brown, "The Dirty Dozen" (1967)
His performance as WWII soldier Robert Jefferson not only included his death at the end of the movie -- it also ended his NFL career because he retired during filming. His death scene is so powerful it reduced Tom Hanks to tears (sort of) a quarter-century later in "Sleepless in Seattle."