{"id":4700,"date":"2016-03-31T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/craig-sager-in-high-spirits-as-he-works-wizards-warriors\/"},"modified":"2016-03-31T08:00:11","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T15:00:11","slug":"craig-sager-in-high-spirits-as-he-works-wizards-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/craig-sager-in-high-spirits-as-he-works-wizards-warriors\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Sager in high spirits as he works Wizards-Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. <\/strong>\u2014 Craig Sager has a blood clot behind his right ear that is affecting his hearing, and that\u2019s just another annoyance he is accepting as he continues to work NBA games for Turner Sports with fervor despite his leukemia no longer being in remission.<\/p>\n

Dealing with the clot, which Sager compared to swimmer\u2019s ear that won\u2019t subside, could cause him to bleed to death given his blood levels, he said.<\/p>\n

Sager\u2019s spirits are undeterred by the latest challenge in his cancer fight, even if it meant a redeye flight after Tuesday\u2019s Wizards-Warriors game to get to a doctor\u2019s appointment in Houston on Wednesday morning before another game Thursday. His new reality includes twice-weekly blood work and regular transfusions, the latest done Monday in Atlanta before he flew West.<\/p>\n

\u201cNice to be here, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d said Sager, who stood up and saluted Steve Kerr as the Warriors coach discussed the one-of-a-kind broadcaster before the game. \u201cI always get here over three hours before tip. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sager waved when he received a standing ovation and cheers from one large section of Oracle Arena as he walked along the baseline during a fourth-quarter timeout.<\/p>\n

For the occasion of covering the defending NBA champions, Sager purchased a new outfit \u2014 wearing a \u201cGolden Gate Bridge\u201d orange sport coat and shirt with a bright tie that lists its 15 colors on the back. His special Nike sneakers say \u201cMr. Fancy\u201d inside the tongue of the left shoe and \u201cSuits\u201d on the right one.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcited to see him,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cThinking a lot about Sager and his family, and there he is. … Fired up you\u2019re working the game, Sags.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, and for anyone wondering how he\u2019s holding up emotionally, Sager said defiantly: \u201cI think my demise has been prematurely reported. I think I\u2019m going to kick this and make medical history and I really believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old is set to work Thursday in Houston, where he receives his chemotherapy treatments \u2014 eight days of chemo coming soon starting the final week of the regular season and into the first week of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a bag of platelets and a blood transfusion. It kind of pumped me up, got me going,\u201d Sager said of Monday\u2019s trip to the hospital. \u201cIt\u2019s like having an old car. You\u2019ve got to put gas in it. If it\u2019s leaking oil, you\u2019ve got to put oil in it every day, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

If all goes well during Wednesday\u2019s checkup, Sager figures he won\u2019t have to go back until Friday for more blood work.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously not good but it\u2019s keeping me going. I have no choice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sager said there\u2019s \u201cno doubt about it\u201d that he\u2019ll work through the playoffs. He hopes to be assigned to San Antonio in the first round so he can go back and forth to Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a battler. He\u2019s going to fight this tooth and nail, that\u2019s who he is and that\u2019s who he\u2019s got to stay,\u201d said Wizards coach Randy Wittman, who as a player in Atlanta met Sager and later had a business with him.<\/p>\n

Sager also is taking on some duties as a spokesman for leukemia awareness. Whatever he can do to help in a cause that needs more attention, he said.<\/p>\n

Warriors assistant Jarron Collins found Sager with a hug outside Kerr\u2019s office, and injured Golden State big man Festus Ezeli wrapped his arm around Sager courtside. Sager chatted up reigning MVP Stephen Curry, of course.<\/p>\n

Afterward in their postgame interview, Curry said: \u201cSeeing you and doing what you\u2019re doing, we\u2019ve got no excuses. You\u2019re an inspiration for us to keep doing what we\u2019re doing, keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously been very surprising and overwhelming the support I\u2019ve gotten,\u201d Sager said. \u201cSo many times when you\u2019re doing a job you feel like you\u2019re nuisance sometimes to people and you\u2019re intruding on their space and you\u2019re asking questions maybe they don\u2019t want to deal with at the time and it\u2019s not as, \u2018Hey, welcome, here\u2019s Craig.\u2019 Whereas now it\u2019s kind of been different. I\u2019ve always been one I\u2019ve always liked to talk to people in the stands. I understand when people come up to me and say somebody in their family has cancer, \u2018We appreciate what you\u2019re doing, we appreciate your fight, don\u2019t give up, we love your attitude.\u2019 That\u2019s just me. I\u2019ve never had one day where I said, \u2018Why me?\u2019 and I\u2019ve never had one day where I laid in my bed and thought about what reality and the worst things are and was down and started crying in my bed.\u201d That\u2019s never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

He misses his daily runs, especially along the water in San Francisco. His tender feet and energy levels make it difficult. Sager did get some golf in last weekend with his kids, and \u201ctook their money, played pretty well, I was very happy. I\u2019m not hitting it as far but I\u2019m still playing pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sager has earned his doctors\u2019 trust over the past two years going through this that he can handle being out, traveling and working on his craft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell them, \u2018No, I\u2019ve got to go,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d go crazy if I just sat around and tried to make sure I didn\u2019t bleed or get cut. I\u2019ve got to be myself and go do what I have to do that keeps me going. It keeps me motivated. It\u2019s therapeutic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. \u2014 Craig Sager has a blood clot behind his right ear that is affecting his hearing, and that\u2019s just another annoyance he is accepting as he continues to work NBA games for Turner Sports<\/a> with fervor despite his leukemia no longer being in remission. Dealing with the clot, which Sager compared to swimmer\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4700"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}