ESPN's ESPY Awards
Los Angeles Clippers Blake Griffen wins the ESPY Award for " Breakthrough Athlete of the Year"at the 2011 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles Reuters

Here's all you need to know about the ESPY Awards 2012, including a breakdown of nominees, a livestream, a preview and more.

Preview

The 20th annual ESPYs begin at 9 p.m. Wednesday night at the famed Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif., and there will be more than 30 awards presented over the course of the night. The show will be simultaneously broadcast live on ESPN, as well as online (see the end of this article in order to determine how to stream the show online.)

According to ESPN, the ceremony, hosted by comedian Rob Riggle, honors the top teams and athletes in a variety of sports, capped off by the announcement of the Team of the Year.

Follow along with all the on-stage action by keeping track of tweets related to the event posted on Twitter by follow the account @ESPYS and the hashtags #ESPY, #ESPYAwards and #ESPYS.

Nominees and winners::

LeBron James, who was named as the NBA as its regular-season MVP as well as its NBA Finals MVP, leads in nominations for ESPY awards.

ESPN reports that the Arthur Ashe Courage Award was to be presented to former Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt, who led her team last season despite being diagnosed last summer with early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type.

Two ESPY winners were announced before the show began. According to ESPN.com: Jonathan Quick of the 2012 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings won Best NHL Player. Brittney Griner, who led Baylor to its second NCAA basketball title and the first 40-0 season in the women's college game, won Best Female College Athlete.

Last year's ESPY award winners included Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Thomas, Blake Griffin, Lindsey Vonn, Rory McIlroy, Jimmer Fredette, Maya Moore and Roy Halladay. This year's winners could include Justin Verlander, Maria Sharapova, Eli Manning, Lexi Thompson, Bubba Watson, Andrew Luck, Rob Gronkowski, Clayton Kershaw and Brittney Griner.

You can also read other sports fans' ESPY Awards 2012 predictions and musings by visiting the ESPYS Fantasy Ballot Forum.

Livestream

To watch the 2012 ESPYs via online livestream on your smartphone, computer, iPad or iPhone, simply visit this link. You will be taken to WatchESPN, ESPN's premium livestream site. In order to view the show via their site, you must sign up to view ESPN content online, which does require payment.

If you would prefer to watch the show for free, simply turn your TV dial to ESPN, or Google ESPY Awards 2012 Free Livestream in order to find a free (illegal) livestream. We do not advocate or condone this method of watching the ESPYs via livestream.

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