Issac Baldizon/NBAE/Getty ImagesCraig Sager says he’s receiving the best treatment for his aggressive leukemia.
Craig Sager, TNT’s flamboyant NBA sideline snoop, said Wednesday he is confident he will win his “battle” with leukemia while clarifying the prognosis he had originally presented on the recent edition of HBO’s Real Sports.
“I have acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive type of cancer,” Sager said in a statement issued by Turner Sports. “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. Fortunately, I am receiving the best treatment in the world and I remain fully confident I will win this battle.”
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Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty ImagesCraig Sager
In the HBO interview, Sager told Bernard Goldberg his leukemia was no longer in remission, recounting how he asked the doctors to tell him his “chances” of surviving?
“And (they say), ‘Well, normally you’ve got three to six months to live. But somebody may only have a week, somebody may have five years. You could be the first one to five years,’” Sager said in the HBO interview.”
Sager, 64, was first diagnosed with leukemia in 2014, but with both chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, he returned to his job in March 2015. The cancer returned but Sager overcame it a second time to come back to TNT by the start of the NBA season.
“I look forward to continuing my work on the sidelines for Turner Sports,” Sager said in the statement.