Vice President Joe Biden will present Craig Sager the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPYs on Wednesday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, SI.com media writer Richard Deitsch reports.
Maura Mandt, whose company, MaggieVission Productions, produces the ESPYs show, said that she and the V Foundation wrote to Biden’s office in May requesting the VP’s participation.
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Mandt told Deitsch, “The idea of having the Vice President present came after the State of the Union (last February) when it was announced he would be at the helm of ‘Moonshot,’ the effort to find a cure for cancer. That is the goal of the V Foundation and the show.
“On top of that, Vice President Biden has been personally affected by this disease with the tragic loss of his son, Beau. We felt that his commitment to fighting this disease and also the way he has spoken of being inspired by his son’s valiant fight against it would make him a powerful presenter of the award.”
In a statement forwarded to SI, Biden said of Sager, who has persevered through cancer in his duties as NBA sideline reporter for Turner Sports, “Like Jimmy Valvano, Craig Sager embodies the best of who we are as Americans. For four decades Craig’s been the go-to-guy on the sidelines for us to better understand a game we love and its place in our culture. But in the real game of life, he’s teaching all of us something bigger — how to live life with purpose, determination, and love. On behalf of all Americans, and cancer patients and their families who he inspires every day, I’m honored to be presenting Craig with an award that reminds us as a nation that we can never give up in our fight to end cancer as we know it.”
Unlike the polarizing decision to give Caitlyn Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at last year’s ESPYs, honoring Sager has been universally applauded, according to Deitsch.
Sager’s response to being told Biden will hand him the award: “Wow.”
The ESPYs will be broadcast at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday on ABC.