Laughter, tears, and colors mark Craig Sager's inspiring memorial

Color was the order of the day at the memorial service for Craig Sager, color in brilliant, eye-searing, joyful combinations. Sager, the longtime NBA announcer who died last week, had requested that attendees at his memorial wear their most colorful clothes, a tribute to his own beloved garish wardrobe. And mourners complied, wearing everything from polka-dotted jackets to rainbow-checked Vans, color-spattered ties and slacks to Chicago Cubs baseball caps.

And there at the front of the sanctuary stood a large canvas of Sager himself, a photograph taken during his inspiring ESPYs speech this past summer. Sager’s jacket, replicated on Sager Strong t-shirts that dotted the sanctuary, outshone even the Christmas trees that ringed the pulpit and choir loft.

“Craig would be extremely pleased and proud at the attire on display,” Dr. Randy Mickler, the pastor who officiated the ceremony, billed as “A Service of Celebration,” said with a smile. Even Mickler got into the spirit of the occasion, sporting — as Sager had requested — a purple-and-lavender jacket-and-tie combination instead of his traditional black robes.

The sanctuary at Mount Bethel United Methodist Church was filled with names you know. NBA commissioner Adam Silver sat in one of the first pews, close to Sager’s TNT mates Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson. Reggie Miller and Isiah Thomas shared another pew; deeper in the crowd were Kevin McHale, Steve Smith, Marv Albert, and so many more. Gregg Popovich, so long Sager’s chief foil, was here too, in Atlanta just hours before his Spurs tipped off in Houston.

But there were many more names in attendance you don’t know, names that Sager himself may not have even known. Names bound together in love and admiration, here to celebrate the life of a guy who celebrated life.

Program from Craig Sager’s memorial. (Via Yahoo Sports)

A solo piano set the tone as attendees arrived, playing not mournful music but Christmas carols. There were prayers and readings of scripture, and soaring hymns and transcendent songs courtesy of gospel singer Yolanda Adams.

But since this was Sager’s life being celebrated, this was also a memorial service of inspiration, determination and head-shaking laughter. It’s the rare memorial service that includes the words “ass,” “balls,” “hell,” “willy,” and “Hooters,” but Sager’s had all these and more.

“’Safety first was not what my dad taught me,” Sager’s son Craig II recalled. “He once grabbed himself below the belt and said, ‘Safety this!’ during a cruise ship safety lesson.” It was one of many lines that had the congregation laughing through tears. If the church had permitted those assembled to bring in cans of Sager’s beloved Bud Light, the entire crowd would have raised a toast.

“I think the Lord’s beyond being shocked now,” Mickler smiled at one point.

Each of the half-dozen speakers praised Sager’s unrelenting determination, his will to enjoy every minute of life on his terms, and his desire bring everyone possible along with him. His son called him “the ultimate experience creator,” and his best friend of 60 years referred to Sager by his childhood nickname of “Ring,” as in “ringleader.”

Sager carried that tenacity into his professional life, from the oft-told story of how he leaped onto the field after Hank Aaron’s 715th home run to secure the first interview, to the weeks and months after his diagnosis, where he returned to the NBA sideline to keep on doing what he loved.

He fought cancer too, fought like hell, fought long enough to live up to a promise to see the wedding of his best friend’s daughter this past July, fought long enough to see his beloved Cubs win a World Series at last. He didn’t win the fight, but as his daughter Kacy said, he turned a terminal diagnosis of two weeks into 18 months: “He beat the spread.”

Ernie Johnson honors Craig Sager. (via screenshot)

It’s that fight, not the wild outfits or the NBA interviews, that will live on long after Sager’s passing.

“He planted sequoiahs,” Ernie Johnson said in his eulogy. “Ten or 15 or 20 years from now, someone who watched him fight is going to hear the doctor say those words: ‘It’s cancer.’ And that person is going to think, ‘I watched Craig Sager fight this thing. I can, too.’ ”

Sager himself took center stage for the closing spot, in a replay of his powerful, inspirational speech at the ESPYs this past summer. “Time is not something that can be bought or wagered with God,” Sager said onscreen. “There is not an endless supply. Time is how you live your life.”

It was a line so vibrant, a voice so familiar, that for a moment, you could forget he’s gone. But then the lights came back up, and soon afterward, the ceremony closed with a recessional of “Go Cubs Go.”

“There’s no way to gauge our days, no way to know how long,” Johnson said, reading a poem he’d written for Sager. “But know this, Craig: we’ll do our best to live them Sager Strong.”