Beloved broadcaster Craig Sager, whose two-year battle with leukemia has both saddened and inspired, will work Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Sager, known equally for his sideline interviews and the flamboyant suits he wears while conducting them, reports on the NBA for Turner Sports. Meanwhile, ESPN owns the rights to the NBA Finals. But media rivalries will be put aside Thursday night as Sager joins ESPN's crew to call the first NBA Finals game of his 30-plus year broadcasting career.
The result is a win for us all.
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"I'm one of those who always wanted to be at events and never liked being in the studio," Sager told Mashable in October, before this season started, and after he'd missed time the previous year for leukemia treatment. "I missed beingthere — not only my colleagues and the players, but the fans too."
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Sager was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia before the 2014 NBA Playoffs. He's been battling the disease ever since, and intermittently had to miss time from his broadcasting work.
Basketball fans instantly recognize Sager for his fashion choices -- suits in clashing hues and sometimes featuring headache-inducing designs. If you grew up watching basketball over the past 20 years, Sager is part of your memory fabric.
But his journalism bona fides are sterling, too. Sager, for example, is the reporter who famously sprinted onto the field in 1974 to interview Hank Aaron while Aaron was still running the bases after breaking Babe Ruth's home run record.
"He's not afraid to ask the right question and he does it the right way," Turner colleague Marv Albert told Mashable in October. "If he realizes he has some information he knows he's not going to be able to get out because of the pace of the game, he'll come over from the sideline and share it with us in the booth. Not everyone does that."
On Thursday night, Sager will share sideline reporting duties with ESPN's Doris Burke. Game 6 tips off at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.
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