Craig Sager tributes
2016By Andrew Bucholtz on

Legendary Turner Sports broadcaster Craig Sager’s passing at 65 Thursday after a long battle with acute myeloid leukemia has sparked tributes from across the sports world. Here’s how some sports channels delivered the news, starting with Trey Wingo on ESPN:

Here’s the NBA TV announcement from Ro Parrish:

That leads into this tribute video from Turner Sports’ Ernie Johnson:

Rachel Nichols delivered the news, as well as a touching personal tribute to Sager (who she worked with at Turner for three years) and condolences to his family, on ESPN2’s The Jump, with Brian Windhorst and Tracy McGrady also offering thoughts:

And Michelle Beadle got emotional on ESPN’s SportsNation:

Here’s a longer tribute looking back at Sager’s remarkable career from ESPN’s John Anderson:

As for the NBA themselves, commissioner Adam Silver sent out a statement with his own tribute to Sager and confirmed that teams will observe a moment of silence in Sager’s honor:

Frequent Sager interviewee, foil and friend Gregg Popovich had a touching statement:

https://twitter.com/GeraldBourguet/status/809557950641471488

As did MLB legend Hank Aaron, who Sager famously interviewed after Aaron set the home-run record:

And Suns’ guard Devin Booker wore a Sager-inspired shirt for warmup:

As did Blazers’ guard Damian Lillard:

And the whole Celtics’ team:

Many other current and former athletes offered their thoughts as well:

ESPN President, John Skipper. issued this statement:

“Craig Sager Statement from ESPN President John Skipper: “Our thoughts are with the Sager family and our friends at Turner Sports. Craig was a universally respected and beloved reporter and a one-of-a-kind personality. His memorable ESPYS speech demonstrated his exceptional strength and a relentlessly positive energy that inspired millions of us.”

And many journalists and broadcasters offered their thoughts as welll:

Plus those outside sports:

We’ll continue to add more tributes in as they come.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz

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