But just days before Sager was due for his bone marrow transplant, Stacy caught a bad cold.
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Life is pretty lovely for Craig Sager, and for those of us who get to watch him doing his job on a nightly basis, his fight against this disease is nothing less than inspiring. And fortunately TNT colleague and Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is one of them.
Barkley recently underwent hip-replacement surgery, his doctor giving him one clear restriction: no traveling. But Barkley was having none of it, telling his doctor that it was an emergency.
“We go to see Sager to cheer him up and by the time you leave you’re like, ‘Is anything wrong with him?’ Barkley told the Associated Press. When you go to try and cheer him up his attitude is so upbeat he cheers you up”. Sager underwent his third bone marrow transplant Wednesday as he continues to battle acute myeloid leukemia.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. This time, an anonymous 20-year-old donor was considered a ideal match.
Sager was first diagnosed with leukemia in 2014 and went into remission after his first bone marrow transplant. But when he heard that doctors had asked Stacy to leave Sager’s side, Barkley made a decision to fly to Houston to spend time with him at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. The procedure was expected to take some 10 hours.
“I’ve had every chemo in the alphabet, majority a couple of times”, he said. He playfully rolled his eyes at his wife, Stacy, when she chided him for not smiling for a photo where he lifted his shirt to show where the fluid was entering his body in a tube above his left pectoral muscle. Fought for all of those years, was always positive, always cheerful, always brought other peoples spirits up. He hopes he is healthy enough to work the sidelines opening night of the upcoming National Basketball Association season. He doesn’t expect to have recovered from Wednesday’s transplant in time for the season-opener on October 25, but aims to return by early November for more of the gentle sparring with the likes of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
It means that youre surviving and youre winning, he said.
On Wednesday, five colorful balloons were tied to one side of his hospital bed.
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“When you get stem cells they say it’s your new birthday”, Stacy explained. So this is his fourth birthday..
