I think my demise has been prematurely reported. That's what I think. I think I'm going take this and make medical history, and I really believe that.Collection: Medical
Sports are supposed to be fun, and so I have fun with the way I dress.Collection: Sports
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.Collection: Learning
I will live my life full of love and full of fun. It's the only way I know how.
Time is something that cannot be bought; it cannot be wagered with God, and it is not in endless supply, Time is simply how you live your life.
What is time, really? When you are diagnosed with a terminal disease like cancer or leukemia, your perception of time changes.
I have run with the bulls in Pamplona. I have raced with Mario Andretti in Indianapolis. I have climbed the Great Wall of China. I have jumped out of airplanes over Kansas.
I always see the glass half full. I see the beauty in others, and I see the hope for tomorrow. If we don't have hope and faith, we have nothing.
I will never give up, and I will never give in.
Something that I've always been. Always lively. I don't want to be dull.
The way you think influences the way you feel, and the way you feel determines how you act.
Nobody knows how long they have left on Earth. There's no guarantees, and for me, when they tell you - not once, twice, three times - 'You've got a couple weeks to live,' or a couple months, you have to determine how you want to do that.
Everyone has to face obstacles. Everybody has to face hurdles. It's what you do with those that determines how successful you're going to be.
I have acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive type of cancer. The typical prognosis is 3-6 months to live, but I would like to stress that is for a patient who is not receiving treatment.
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'.
Whatever I might have imagined a terminal diagnosis would do to my spirit, it summoned quite the opposite - the greatest appreciation for life itself. So I will never give up, and I will never give in.
Ya gotta think positive.
I've already had two stem cell transplants. Very rarely does somebody have a third, so I have to maintain my strength so I can go through this.
I will continue to keep fighting sucking the marrow out of life as life sucks the marrow out of me.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, like so many other people, my life changed forever.
A dramatic turn has matched me with acute myeloid leukemia. From the sidelines to being sidelined, 40 veins and 40 electrolytes.
I grew up in Batavia, Ill., a small town out in the corn fields, west of Chicago. It was boring.
For our senior picture, they said, 'Black or navy blazer.' And I thought, Why do I want to look like everybody else?
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'm fighting cancer and I refuse to give up.
Sports are in my soul. That's what drives me.
I'm fighting not only for myself and for my family, but I feel I am fighting for everybody who has cancer.
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.
It seems everybody has been somehow affected by cancer, either through a relative or a close friend or somewhere, and they know how devastating cancer can be. And they see me, and I refuse to let it affect how I live and what I do.
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.
Erik Spoelstra has always been a guy I'd talk to even when he was just doing video clips for the Heat.
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.
Hope is not just... out in the sky, or accepting the facts or reality. Hope is having optimistic, positive expectations.
When you raise kids, you want them to grow up and be successful. If they can grow up and be like you, it's quite flattering.
If you're running around with a negative attitude all the time, you're going to feel down; you're going to have negative results.
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 have wrestled gators in Florida. I have sailed the ocean with Ted Turner. I have swam the oceans in the Caribbean.
If I missed a game, that meant I was losing the battle. I'm not going to let leukemia affect me.
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.'
When doctors tell you that your only hope for survival is 14 straight days of intense chemotherapy, 24 hours a day, you sit there, and you count down the 336 hours. You see, each day is a blessing.
I am not an expert on time, or on cancer, or on life itself.
So many times, when you're doing a job, you feel like you're a nuisance at times to people, intruding on their space when you ask them questions; maybe they don't want to deal with you at the time. And now, it's, 'Hey, welcome, where's Craig?' Whereas, now, it's kind of different.
People come up to me and say somebody in their family has cancer, and we appreciate what you do, and we appreciate your fight, and don't give up, we love your attitude.
I'm grateful to HBO for telling my story, and I'd like to thank everyone for their ongoing support.
I look forward to continuing my work on the sidelines for Turner Sports.
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.
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.
As a young boy, I had the usual hobbies - sports, baseball cards, model airplanes and trains. But I always had a distinct fascination with trains.
Like most boys, I had a model train set up in my bedroom, resting on a little-used ping-pong table upstairs.
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.