Lance Mackey gets star treatment but turns few heads at ESPYs

MUSHER: Nomination puts Alaska's Lance Mackey at awards with larger celebrities.

By MATIAS SAARI
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Published: July 17, 2007
Last Modified: July 17, 2007 at 04:54 AM

While not winning an ESPY, Iditarod champion Lance Mackey did get a glimpse into the high-rolling world of celebrities and famous athletes.

The experience, especially a charity golf tournament for cancer research where Mackey was the designated celebrity of his group, was a memory Mackey will cherish.

Hollywood and the masses of people there, however, hold little appeal for the Fairbanks musher.

"In all reality, I didn't feel comfortable in that situation," Mackey said Sunday evening as he pulled up in a four-wheeler to Ivory Jack's bar and restaurant in Goldstream Valley, where he watched the tape-delayed awards show three days after he and wife, Tonya, attended it.

"I confirmed that I would never want to be rich. I felt the attitude with some of those folks was just uncalled for. You can hardly talk to them."

That's not to say Mackey, one of five athletes nominated in the Best Outdoor Athlete category, wasn't a little star-struck.

"It was neat just being in the same amphitheater as all these big stars -- Samuel L. Jackson, Carmen Electra, basketball players, football players, comedians, everybody was there," said Mackey, who said he felt underdressed in a pair of new black slacks and a nice button-up white shirt while others wore "$15,000 custom-made suits and $50,000 snakeskin shoes."

Though recognized by few, Mackey received star treatment from ESPN, the television sports superstation. That included a plush hotel room on Sunset Boulevard, first-class airfare, invitations to awards parties, limitless food and drinks, and an obscene number of gifts plus vouchers for even more.

"We weren't allowed to spend a penny," said Tonya, shortly before showing a digital camera picture of her (in a fancy black dress) with Super Bowl quarterback Peyton Manning. Actors Samuel L. Jackson and Ashley Judd were her other favorite star encounters.

The Mackeys also shared a limousine ride to the airport with Chicago Bears cornerback Charles Tillman, who was infatuated by Mackey's mushing life.

"That made me feel pretty good, because the whole time I was there there weren't that many people that acknowledged me and what I had accomplished," said Mackey, the champion of the 2007 Yukon Quest and Iditarod sled dog races who tried to promote and educate people about mushing. His new agent, Kevin Kastner, also attended the awards.

Mackey's category, Best Outdoor Athlete, was won by endurance runner Dean Karnazes and got little recognition at the awards show Thursday that was telecast Sunday night. Mackey said he at least got a blurb announced about him during the awards.

"That guy (Karnazes) got his name up on the screen for about two seconds and he picked up his award afterwards. He didn't get to go up on stage," Mackey said of Karnazes, who ran 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states.

Anyone watching the ESPYS on television curious about whether Mackey would win got no answer. The broadcast stuck mostly to the high-profile awards and athletes and failed to mention the Best Outdoor Athlete and many other categories. As of late Sunday night, the ESPYS Web site didn't list the winners or the vote breakdown.

"I wasn't disappointed in not winning," said Mackey, 37, the first musher to be nominated. "I didn't expect to."

But Mackey, back in the casual attire of an Ivory Jacks hooded sweatshirt, clearly enjoyed telling stories of his 48-hour whirlwind Hollywood trip to a group of friends assembled at the restaurant.

"To me, poor boy from Alaska ... I didn't fit in, but it was really cool to see and I stood back in the corner and just soaked it all up," Mackey said.

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