Craig Sager will return to his duties as TNT's sideline reporter on Thursday night in the Bulls-Thunder game after an 11-month battle with leukemia. The eclectic Sager has been a staple of NBA broadcasts for years and is beloved by everyone in the league. Coaches and players expressed their support as soon as the news about his now-conquered disease surfaced, headlined by Sager's on-camera nemesis, Gregg Popovich. Fans have also surely missed his charming persona and loose interviewing style that often resulted in more honest answers than his more structured colleagues get.
Proof the NBA is better when Craig Sager’s involved
In honor of Sager’s return after an 11-month battle with leukemia, here’s a look at some of his best moments behind the mic.
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
To celebrate his return, let’s take a tour through some of Sager’s best moments of a storied career.
The haunted hotel
Sager was not afraid of being the butt of the joke, and that allowed for hilarious reports. Like the time he visited Oklahoma City’s allegedly haunted hotel.
“You take this and you burn it”
Sager's ability to not take himself so seriously in a business filled with people who do resulted in great moments between him and some of the league's brightest stars. Like the time Kevin Garnett went on a long monologue about how Sager needed to burn his suit ...
“Biased? Spell that”
... or when Shaquille O’Neal -- still a member of the Lakers at that time -- challenged Sager to spell “biased” and called him “tough guy” in a rare instance in which he wore a black suit.
Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich
While there are countless funny interactions with players, his best moments came when he sparred with coaches. “When you’re doing this job, sometimes you feel like you’re annoying (the coaches),” Sager told the Chicago Tribune’s Ed Sherman. “They’d rather not have you around. Who knows, maybe it’s the clothes?”
Yet that combative but entertaining relationship he shared with two of the most decorated coaches of all time is Sager's biggest claim to fame and what makes him so endearing after suffering so many burns at their hands. Phil Jackson used to derive a lot of pleasure from providing short responses to his questions and mocking his suits:
Gregg Popovich continued the tradition and turned it into an art form. He went full Allen Iverson on a "preseason? Preseason!" rant a couple of years ago:
Then he gave him a four-word interview in the playoffs:
The lighthearted barbs about clothing are almost too many to count:
The Craig Jr. interview
But through it all, the typically ornery Popovich seemed to genuinely like Sager, as those behind-the-scenes moments suggest. That became clear once he had to leave his post, leaving his son, Craig Sager Jr. to interview Popovich last playoffs. The interview finished with a promise to be nice whenever Sager returned.
Few member of the media are as universally beloved by fans, coaches and players alike. We’re all so happy to have Craig Sager back.
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