Leukemia had taken a toll on Craig Sager’s health, but he continued even after three bone marrow transplants, two of which his eldest son Craig II had facilitated. It was evident that the sweaty and terse basketball players and coaches loved Craig Sager.
Craig Sager’s attitude and persona and his constant struggle to come back to the sidelines won him the Jimmy V Perseverance Award, named after former North Carolina State basketball coach and commentator, Jim Valvano.
When Craig went on stage to accept the award during the ESPY Awards in June 2016, he said that while everyone including him thought that the leukemia diagnosis would kill his spirit, it ended up doing the exact opposite. He was determined never to give up and never give in and continued in that fashion until the very end of his life.
Craig Sager breathed his last in Illinois after being inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. There was a re-emergence of myeloid leukemia, and the two transplants couldn’t protect him long enough.
Sager died at the age of 65 years and is survived by his wife, two sons, three daughters and two sisters.
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