LOS ANGELES — Recently retired San Diego Wave star Alex Morgan shared the ESPYs Icon Award with basketball star Diana Taurasi in recognition of their careers and major impact on sports. The women touched their trophies together in a toast. “Our mission has always been very similar,” said Morgan, the Encinitas resident who retired from the Wave in September and is now a minority owner in the club.. “We fought to leave our game in a better place than where we found it just as a generation before us did. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants.” Taurasi, who retired in February after a 20-year basketball career, mentioned her parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina. She also had words for the next generation. “Keep going, don’t wait for someone to hand you anything, outwork them, be loyal, bring that damn fire every day,” she said. “We’re proof you can do it. We did it our way. No shortcuts, no apologies, and no regrets.” Rugby star Maher honored San Diego’s Ilona Maher received the ESPY for best breakthrough athlete. The American women’s rugby star was one of the stars of last summer’s Olympics, helping lead the United States to a bronze medal in rugby sevens. The U.S. Olympic rugby team trains at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center. NBA finals MVP, Olympic star share top awards NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles won as best male and female athletes at the ESPYS on Wednesday night. Gilgeous-Alexander led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the NBA championship last month while piling up hardware as league MVP and scoring champion. “It’s a dream come true and for dreams to come true it takes a village,” he said, thanking his wife, parents, brother and others. “Those names probably don’t mean much but to me they mean everything.” Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, claimed the night’s first award, best championship performance for her efforts at the Paris Games. She won three golds and a silver while helping the U.S. win its first team title since 2016. “That was very unexpected, especially in a category of all men,” Biles said after kissing her husband, Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens. She beat out Stephen Curry, Freddie Freeman and Rory McIlroy. Biles’ Olympic teammate, Suni Lee, won the best comeback award for overcoming two rare kidney diseases. She brought one of her doctors to the show. Arthur Ashe Award for Courage Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson accepted the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage from point guard Russell Westbrook. Robertson was president of the NBA Players’ Association at the time of a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the NBA in 1970. It led to an extensive reform of the league’s strict free agency and draft rules and eventually to higher salaries for all players. The 86-year-old Robertson, a 12-time All Star known as The Big O during his career, was the first Black president of any sports labor union. “I knew there was work to do. There was a desperate need for players to have more career security, improved working conditions and other accommodations,” he said. “In life, it’s important to be persistent or as I have been called stubborn. Stubborn about what you believe in.” Pat Tillman Award for Service Former athletes David Walters and Erin Regan accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service, given to those who have served in a way that honors the legacy of the former NFL player and U.S. Army Ranger. Walters, 37, earned a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was a seven-time world championships medalist. He’s now a Los Angeles city firefighter. Regan, 45, was a Wake Forest soccer player who spent one season in the pros before retiring to join the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Both Walters and Regan fought the deadly and destructive wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January. Jimmy V Award An emotional Katie Schumacher-Cawley accepted the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance with her husband and children joining in the standing ovation. The Penn State women’s volleyball coach was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in September. She continued coaching without missing a practice and became the first woman to guide a team to the NCAA national championship. “Cancer changed my life but it didn’t take it. It didn’t take my belief, it didn’t take my spirit and it didn’t take my team,” she said. Gatorade Male and Female Players of the Year Basketball player Cameron Boozer and track and field athlete Jane Hedengren were named the Gatorade Best Male and Female Players of the Year. Boozer will be playing at Duke in the fall, following in the collegiate footsteps of his father, Carlos, a former NBA All-Star. Hedengren will compete for BYU in her hometown of Provo, Utah. U-T sports editor Ryan Finley contributed to this story.