It's late and I want to go to sleep but after what I just witnessed in the Jazz - Warriors game (Jazz won, 127-117 in overtime)  I just want to fire off some thoughts about Derek Fisher.  What I witnessed tonight was a true portrait of courage and showed someone who has the heart of a champion and the character of an army.  This was a "Willis Reed" moment and something that will be discussed and remembered for a long time to come.

Just a quick recap for those that may not have seen the game and what happened.  Derek Fisher was excused from the team because his little girl has a rare form of eye cancer and she was having surgery this morning in New York.  According to the ABC affiliate in Salt lake City, she has a tumor behind here eye between her eye and her brain.  After the surgery, he, his wife and his daughter flew back to Salt Lake City.  When they landed, Fisher asked his wife is he could go to the game and she told him to go.  Little did Fisher know when he showed up in the third quarter that Deron Williams was in serious foul trouble and Dee Brown went out with what looked like a very serious neck injury.  So out of the locker room comes Fisher and the crowd just erupts.  Fisher comes on to play a crucial ten minutes, scores five points in overtime, nets three assists but most importantly he hit a huge three point shot, made a big stop on Baron Davis forcing a turnover and he provided such an emotional lift to his team.

After the game Fisher spoke about the rare form of cancer that his daughter had, his first public statements describing the illness.  He spoke of the importance of his family and his faith and at times looked like he was going to cry while Pam Oliver interviewed him but he held it together.  It was nice to see his former Warrior teammates come up and embrace him after the game and on the TNT post game show, Charles, Ernie and magic had nothing but good things to say about Derek.  God bless Derek Fisher and his family in their time of need.

The bottom line is this.  At a time when rotten, nasty, selfish and surly athletes seem to dominate the sports pages and our national discourse, it's such a refreshing breath of fresh air to see a genuinely good, humble, God fearing, family man have a night like tonight and provide inspiration to all of us that love sport.  As bloggers we spend so much time talking about Bonds and Clemens and Pacman and Moss and Schilling.  We dwell on shortcomings and failure.  We insult each others teams/colleges/conferences and as we are seeing right now on the Fox blogs, sometimes even each other.  Sometimes we go over the top (I know I have and I have an army of Notre Dame fans that will point that out to me) with what we say and what we write because we just don't really have something positive to write about.  I know I feel that way sometimes, I'm sure we all do.  That is why I will not forget anytime soon what I witnessed tonight.  That is why I've never felt this good writing my blog before.  I know my buddy steelerfan writes so eloquently about these types of things and does a much better job then I'm doing right now but if I may be so bold as to borrow a phrase from him...Derek Fisher, my friends, is a beautiful example of the human side of sports.