Craig Sager Gave Wonderful, Moving Speech After Receiving Jimmy V Award At ESPYs

Craig Sager was this year’s recipient of the Jimmy V Award at the ESPYs, and boy did he give one heck of a speech. The 65-year-old is in the midst of a long battle with leukemia and has somehow maintained his patented charm throughout the darkest days of his diagnosis and treatment.

Clad in one of his patented overly-colorful suits, Sager was presented the award by Joe Biden. He immediately told the vice president that he believed, “One day soon we’ll wipe out cancer.” Biden’s son Beau died of the disease in May of 2015.

He then gave one of the better speeches in the history of the ESPYs:

Sager said he found inspiration in Jim Valvano’s passionate speech from the 1993 ESPYs, and thanked the Valvano family.

Then he told the audience:

“When you are diagnosed with a terminal disease like cancer or leukemia, your perception of time changes. When doctors tell you you have three weeks to live, you try to live a lifetime of moments in three weeks, or you say to hell with three weeks. When doctors tell you that your only hope of survival is 14 straight days of intense chemotherapy, 24 hours a day, do you sit there and count down the 336 hours? Do do you see each day as a blessing?

“Time is something that cannot be bought, it cannot be wagered with God, and it is not an endless supply. Time is simply how you live your life. I’m not an expert on time or on cancer or on life itself, I’m a kid from the small Illinois town of Batavia, who grew up on the Chicago Cubs and made sports his life’s work. Although there’s never been a day when it actually seemed like work…

“If I’ve learned anything through all of this, it’s that each and every day is a canvas waiting to be painted. An opportunity for love, for fun for living, for learning.”

Sager finished his speech with a message of hope that echoed Valvano’s words from 23 years ago:

“I will never give up, and I will never give in. I will continue to keep fighting, sucking the marrow out of life as life sucks the marrow out of me. I will live my life full of love and full of fun. It’s the only way I know how. Thank you, and goodnight.”

There were few dry eyes in the house when Sager finished. We know he’ll keep fighting. Here’s hoping he’s around next year to hand the award to its next recipient.

from The Big Lead http://ift.tt/29RjLFN