Bigger than basketball

“Some things are a little bit bigger than basketball.”

Iowa State men’s basketball coach Greg McDermott said that during his weekly press conference, in reference to Iowa head coach Todd Lickliter’s recent health problems.

I couldn’t help but think about what McDermott said while watching college basketball in my Urbandale apartment last night. You see, it’s “Jimmy V.” week on ESPN. For one week every year, the network plays a week full of college basketball games in honor of the late Jimmy Valvano, a former N.C. State coach who’s life was taken by cancer on April 28, 1993. That was less than two months after he gave his now-famous “don’t ever give up” speech, during the 1993 ESPY awards.

McDermott wasn’t talking about anything specific when he said “some things are bigger than basketball” on Monday, but think about it. Those words are so true. They are to me at least.

There really is a lot more than winning and losing in this game that we call life.

I wanted to take some time on our front page today, to post Valvano’s incredible speech. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If you have seen it, watch it again.

His passion, his faith and his love of life can teach us all something about ourselves.

If you’d like to donate to the V Foundation for cancer research, CLICK HERE.