Craig Sager the Wardrobe Warrior

The sports world lost a terrific personality in Craig Sager this week. He will forever be missed and our thoughts are with his friends, family and colleagues as they mourn the loss of an amazing human being.

Craig Sager will forever be known for the colorful, eye-popping suits. I’ve learned that they were never meant to be attention-grabbing by any means. In fact, his colleagues have said the attention wasn’t what it was about at all. The bright colors were symbolic of his positive outlook on life, always seeing the light in the dark, and always seeing the glass half full. The suits were his way of spreading that positivity amongst his peers. I can’t remember a time he didn’t make someone smile in an interview, let alone have someone compliment his attire. I wish I could have met him because everybody needs people like Craig in their lives.

Craig’s positive outlook on life continued, even after he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia late March. He just continued living his life the way he knew how, with hope and positivity. Here’s a great video of Craig Sager accepting the Jimmy V Award at the ESPYS back in July. It’s a long one, but well worth the watch as he talks about his struggle and perseverance:

Craig Sager developed several close relationships with players and coaches throughout his time as a sports reporter, but he had a special relationship with Gregg Popovich. I like WikiPedia’s description of Gregg as a friendly nemesis of Sager’s. Coach Pop would always poke fun at Craig’s suits, but it was all out of good humor via dry sarcasm. After years of sideline interviews with Craig, Coach Pop shared his feelings of Craig’s passing:

"I guess on a day like this, basketball has to take a back seat as we all think about somebody who was very unique, very special," Popovich said. "Whether you really knew Craig or not, you got the feeling that he was a special person in a lot of different ways. And right now I just feel for his family.

"To talk about him being a professional or good at what he did is a tremendous understatement. All of us who knew him understood that fact, what he was all about as far as work was concerned, but he was a way better person than he was a worker, even though he was amazing in that regard. He loved people, he enjoyed pregame, during games, postgame - he loved all the people around it, and everybody felt that.

"The most amazing part of him is his courage. What he's endured, and the fight that he's put up, the courage that he's displayed during this situation is beyond my comprehension. And if any of us can display half the courage he has to stay on this planet, to live every (day) as if it's his last, we'd be well off. We all miss him very much."

Ananth Pandian at CBS Sports

Craig Sager will be sorely missed, but he wouldn’t want us being down. He’d probably hope that we do the best to live our life to its fullest, with positivity, and an overall goal of just being happy.

I'd like to give a big shoutout to Diane Ye for the free pattern I used in the featured image for this post. I took her suggestion and donated $5 to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I encourage you to make at least a $1 donation because any amount goes a long way when you get your friends to do the same.