CRAIG SAGER

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 where it actually seemed like work.

I try not to match too much. You know, if there's a blue coat and a blue shirt and a blue tie, I try to stay away from that. I'd rather have a blue coat and a yellow shirt and a pink tie. I don't like to look too matching. You know those mismatched socks kids wear? That's my idea of a good suit.

They wanted to try this outpatient chemo, and I said no problem. I was adamant. I didn't want to miss any games. It's where I'm supposed to be, and I wanted to be there.

I don't know how much time I have left, and there are certain things I'd like to do. I've got five kids. Kacy, the oldest, I'd like to see her be happy and fulfilled with her dreams. I want Junior, who gave me the two transplants, I want him to find his niche; I know he's going to make a very big impact someday.

I've never had one of those middle of the nights when I go, 'Why me?' or 'I don't know if I can keep fighting like this.' No. Those thoughts don't even enter my mind.

Like most boys, I had a model train set up in my bedroom, resting on a little-used ping-pong table upstairs.

For our senior picture, they said, 'Black or navy blazer.' And I thought, Why do I want to look like everybody else?

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.

Hope is not just... out in the sky, or accepting the facts or reality. Hope is having optimistic, positive expectations.

What is time, really? When you are diagnosed with a terminal disease like cancer or leukemia, your perception of time changes.

I get this call and they go, you know, 'Do you want to do the finals?' and I go, 'Yeah, I guess, I've never, never done the finals.' Especially for somebody who's done as many thousands of games as I have, it kind of takes you one step further.

I can't bring out something I've already worn. I want to make sure I don't look down. I want people to say, 'Man, he looks good'.

Back in the early '70s, there were two airlines that flew puddle jumpers from the Sarasota-Bradenton airport to Atlanta: National and Eastern, neither of which exists today.

I can't even use a can opener. I'm mechanically challenged. I ripped off two thumbnails trying to change kids' bicycle chains.

I first met Jim Valvano in the 1980s when he was a frequent guest on our CNN 'Coaches Corner' show based in Atlanta, as he was always in the area recruiting the next North Carolina State basketball phenom.

To those out there who are suffering from cancer, facing adversity, I want you to know that your will to live can make all the difference in the world.

When doctors tell you that you have three weeks to live, you try to live a lifetime of moments in three weeks. But you say, 'To hell with three weeks.'

I'm grateful to HBO for telling my story, and I'd like to thank everyone for their ongoing support.

Erik Spoelstra has always been a guy I'd talk to even when he was just doing video clips for the Heat.

Vice President Biden had recently launched the 'Cancer Moonshots', a campaign to finally eradicate cancer across humanity. He had lost his eldest son, Beau, in 2015, to brain cancer, and the ESPYs gave him a platform to raise awareness.

The way you think influences the way you feel, and the way you feel determines how you act.

Sarasota in 1974 was a city of 46,459 people, the 73rd-largest market in the country and sixth-largest in Florida, according to Arbitron Ratings. To supplement my meager salary, I was a bartender at Big Daddy's on St. Armand's Circle and a sailing instructor at nearby Lido Beach.

I will continue to keep fighting sucking the marrow out of life as life sucks the marrow out of me.

Something that I've always been. Always lively. I don't want to be dull.

I'm fighting not only for myself and for my family, but I feel I am fighting for everybody who has cancer.