TNT's Craig Sager on Thursday "will be right back where he is most comfortable -- on the sidelines in the face of NBA coaches and players" -- as he is scheduled to return to work for Thunder-Bulls, according to I.J. Rosenberg of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. Sager, who has been absent from TNT broadcasts since last April as he battles leukemia, said, "I have been ready to get back to work since the fall and I was hoping
to do the (NBA) All-Star Game. But the doctors didn’t think my immune
system was ready and I still needed to stay away from people and crowds.
The doctors now say I am ready to go and I feel good and I am going
full blast. ... But I haven’t beaten leukemia because it takes three
years before you know you are out of the woods." Rosenberg notes Sager's leukemia is "in remission." Sager: "The support from everyone has been unbelievable. [T'Wolves F] Kevin Garnett was the first one to send me flowers. The next day I got a call from (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver and that was when they were going through the whole Donald Sterling mess. I told Adam you have more important things to worry than me and he said, 'No, you are part of the NBA.'" Sager said of his colorful wardrobe, "I picked out leukemia’s colors which are orange and was going to come back wearing a orange coat and a pinstripe linen shirt. But that was when I was thought I was coming back in the fall and it is going to be five degrees in Chicago so it would be a little out of place. It also doesn’t fit. So I have picked out something and got it made with Chicago colors in it. Also, my feet are swollen so I am not going to be wearing my normal crocs or ostrich shoes so Nike said they are making me a special pair of shoes" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 3/3).
