Legendary sideline reporter Craig Sager underwent his third bone marrow transplant in three years on Wednesday, continuing his fight against acute myeloid leukemia thanks to the generosity of an unnamed 20-year-old male donor. From the looks of things, the 65-year-old Turner Sports broadcaster remained in good spirits even in the midst of yet another procedure aimed at beating back the disease with which he was diagnosed in April of 2014:
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Three transplants, three straight summers spent playing life's version of Chutes and Ladders. pic.twitter.com/DQUXcWWk8R
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The rare third bone marrow transplant represents the latest in a long line of treatments for Sager, whose decades of work as one of the most persistent sideline interviewers and most colorfully dressed figures in all of sports have made him a widely agreed-upon favorite among fans and NBA lifers alike.
On one level, he knows that the fact that he’s needed three such treatments — along with aggressive chemotherapy, which prevented him from traveling to Rio de Janeiro to cover men’s and women’s basketball during the 2016 Summer Olympics — means his odds of victory aren’t good. He revealed in March that his leukemia was no longer in remission, necessitating the new round of treatment.
Still, Sager remains committed to pushing his luck — “OK, third time’s the charm,” he said shortly after the transplant began — and to taking the fight to his adversary, according to Kristie Rieken of The Associated Press:
“I like to gamble,” he told The Associated Press. “I like to bet on horses, I like to bet on dogs, I like to bet on a lot of things. I’ve bet on a lot of things with a lot higher odds than this.” […]
The latest of nearly 100 procedures Sager has endured in his well-publicized fight was performed at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and took more than 10 hours to complete. Dr. Muzaffar Qazilbash, Sager’s stem cell transplantation physician, researched thousands of such transplants at MD Anderson over the last 15 years.
“It’s less than 1 percent of the total number of transplants,” Qazilbash said. “It’s very rare to have three transplants.”
Despite the long and grueling nature of the procedure, Sager held fast, according to his son, Craig Jr., who was the donor for the first two of his father’s bone marrow transplants:
| @CraigSagerJr | |
36 GRUELING hrs hooked up to EXTREME chemo & counting, while also hitting hour 10 of the MASSIVE 2 liter transplant. He's a beast. HOLY HELL
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It’s that perseverance and commitment to positivity that have struck so many throughout Sager’s fight — including longtime TNT colleague Charles Barkley, who defied his own doctor’s orders by traveling, less than a month removed from hip replacement surgery, to be by Sager’s side after learning that Sager’s wife, Stacy, had been sent away after coming down with a cold that Sager’s doctors didn’t want him to catch.
“Craig Sager is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met,” Barkley told the AP. “We go to see Sager to cheer him up and by the time you leave you’re like, ‘Is anything wrong with him?’ He has the most positive attitude … When you go to try and cheer him up his attitude is so upbeat he cheers you up.”
For decades, Craig Sager has made his living by reporting, entertaining and enlightening sports fans. For the last three years, he’s made a broader impact by inspiring us, by presenting an indefatigable example of grace under pressure, and by reminding us that while you can’t always control what happens to you in life, you can control how you respond — even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
“Man, life is too beautiful, too wonderful, there’s just too many things,” he said Wednesday. “It’s not just you. It’s your family and kids and all. Fight. Fight until the end. Fight as hard as you can.”
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