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

Preview

The 20th annual ESPYs begin at 9 p.m. EDT Wednesday night at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, 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 by 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 list of individual athelete ESPY award winners could include: Justin Verlander, Maria Sharapova, Eli Manning, Lexi Thompson, Bubba Watson, Andrew Novak Djokovic, Aaron Rodgers, Justin Verlander, David Freese, Eli Manning, Tony Stewart, Jonathan Quick, Anthony Davis, Robert Griffin III, Rob Gronkowski, Jeremy Lin, Alex Morgan, Drew Brees, Mariano River, Lexi Thompson, Mike Krzyzewski, Sidney Crosby, Johan Santana, Matthew Stafford, John Calipari,  Tom Coughlin, Kim Mulkey, Patrick Murphy, Erik Spoelstra, Darryl Sutter, Terrell Suggs, Ryan Braun, Josh Hamilton, Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, Claude Giroux, Henrik Lundqvist, Evgeni Malkin, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Quick, Dario Franchitti, Sebastian Vettel, Del Worsham, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo, Seimone Augustus, Tamika Catchings, Tina Charles, Angel McCoughtry, Diana Taurasi, Jon "Bones" Jones, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Anderson Silva, Andre Ward, Luke Donald, Bill Haas, Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson, Bubba Watson, Cristie Kerr, Yani TsengSo Yeon Ryu, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Victoria Azarenka, Petra Kvitova, Samantha Stosur, Jack Connolly, Anthony Davis, Andrew Luck, Mike Zunino, Alex Jupiter, Caitlin Leverenz, Teresa Noyola, Jackie Traina, and more.

For a full list of this year's nominees, as well as ESPN writers' predictions of who will win, simply click this link. Some of the top names in contention for awards are LeBron James, 

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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