Craig Sager returns to TV tonight in his long-awaited comeback after an almost year long battle with Leukemia. Sager will take the sidelines in Chicago, a city he calls home, to be the sideline reporter for the Chicago Bulls battle against Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
While Westbrook has been dominating the headlines recently with his amazing play, the story tonight in the Windy City will be the return of Sager to the sidelines in his fancy suits to interview the coaches, players and bring some hilarity back to TNT’s basketball coverage.
Following from Sean Highkin of NBC ProBasketballTalk.
And to commemorate the occasion, his suit will be red and black.
“I will come tonight, and you may actually think I’m Benny the Bull,” Sager said at morning shootaround. “I have a lot of love for my Chicago Bulls. Normally, you don’t show a lot of favoritism for one or the other team, but since Chicago means so much to me and coming back here, I said I have to show some love to the Bulls and to Chicago. I don’t think I’ll get booed by too many people for what I’m wearing here tonight.”
It’s been a long, hard battle for Sager, who underwent strenuous treatments for almost a year to get to this day. At the United Center Thursday morning, he looked a little thin, but otherwise in great spirits.
“I’m very grateful,” Sager said. “I got up today and it was like the first day of school. You’re a little nervous. I’ve done it before but everything’s a little different. It’s a long 11 months, believe me. But I was very fortunate I had some doctors I believed in, had some good care. I’m back. A little bit lighter, I don’t know if you can see it on TV but I lost close to 50 pounds, got some of it back, but I had to get some new clothes because all those great things I had before don’t fit anymore.”
Sager getting new duds to wear on the sideline will not be a problem, i’m sure the always fashionable sideline reporter has the best of the best in attire.
Sager is always hungry to work and work hard. He loves his job and working with the people at Turner so much that during the process of his battle against leukemia, he knew he was going to be back. Sager worked hard to get to where he is now and there was no way he was going to give up.
“Turner was very supportive,” Sager said. “They said ‘No matter how long it takes, your job is there when you get back.’ Which is very good, because my contract expired in December, so they had to renew me even though I’m sitting there in a hospital bed, getting my last rights for a while, but they still had faith and wanted me back. This is what I do.”
There will be no time to ease back into the workload, with the NCAA Tournament and the NBA playoffs both coming up in the next two months. And that’s just how Sager likes it.
“They asked me if I wanted to ease back into it,” Sager said. “I said, ‘No. My gosh, no.’ If I’m ready to go, I want to go back full-blast. So I’ll leave from here, go to New York, then March Madness in conjunction with Turner and CBS, then go right into the playoffs.”
The excitement in Sager is real and he is just happy to be back on the sidelines of another NBA game.
“Hopefully my body will stay healthy,” Sager said. “I’m totally in remission, they don’t think you’re cured for three years, but right now my vital signs are very good. Everyone’s cleared me, they all think I’m healthy, I look a little scrawny I guess, but I feel good, I feel great, I don’t think I’ll have any problems.”
Enjoy Craig Sager and his longtime subject of interviews, Gregg Popovich.
