Can you believe that TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager has never worked an NBA Finals game?! Sager was diagnosed with leukemia in 2014, missed a year of work while he went through treatment, and returned to the sidelines this year.
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John Wildhack, ESPN’s executive vice-president for production and programming, said Sager is “an iconic member of the National Basketball Association family”.
Earlier in the interview, Sager asked James how he’ll handle the pressure of Sunday’s Game 7, knowing that he’ll either return to Cleveland to clean out his locker or to the “biggest celebration Cleveland and Northern Ohio has seen in over 50 years”.
Sager will be handling the sideline duties along with ESPN’s Doris Burke.
“Thanks a lot for entertaining me”, Sager said to James.
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Sager, who is 65, has covered the NBA for over 15 years for TNT, and because ABC/ESPN have the rights to the NBA Finals, Sager had never covered a Finals game before in his career. I’ve been watching the series very closely and, while I do not want to distract in any way from the event itself, I look forward to being in the building for what will be an incredibly exciting Game 6. Sager was scheduled to undergo eight days of chemotherapy at Houston’s MD Anderson after the end of Western Conference Finals. He says the invitation to join the broadcast “is a great honor”. “That would be the only time I could do a game, and so it had to be Game 6”, Sager said. He said in March that he is no longer in remission and that “uncharted waters” lie ahead of him. “I know our entire team is delighted to work with Craig for Game 6”.
