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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em &gt;By remaining defiantly optimistic and energetic during a grueling, two-year battle with cancer, TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager has evolved from the NBA's most colorful character into its most esteemed. Subscribe now for more in-depth coverage, only in&amp;nbsp;SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maggie Gray welcomes SI senior writer Lee Jenkins back to the Gray Area Podcast to talk about his latest feature for &lt;em&gt;Sports Illustrated&lt;/em&gt; on TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager.&amp;nbsp;In this episode, they discuss Sager\u2019s flashy suits and wardrobe,&amp;nbsp;why everyone around the league likes him so much, the dangers of his travel schedule, his health and more.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An excerpt from Jenkins's story:\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sager is not the guy who provides dissertations on pick-and-roll defense. He is the guy who once slept next to the stall of Seattle Slew the night before the horse won the Triple Crown, who bailed Morganna the Kissing Bandit out of jail, who surprised Shaquille O\u2019Neal by boat at his Isleworth home. An interview with Sager should really be conducted at the dog track, where he used to own greyhounds, or a Hooters, where servers clad in Sager Orange bring him Bud Light and buffalo shrimp. He should be perched on a barstool next to his wife, Stacy\u2014a former Bulls dancer 21 years his junior\u2014regaling strangers with a story about Dennis Rodman, who went AWOL from the Pistons in 1993 and planned to commit suicide, until Sager tracked down the Worm on the second floor of a Detroit strip club. \u201CThe Landing Strip,\u201D Sager recalls. \u201CHe had the gun. He was going to do it. I told him how stupid that would be.\u201D\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Later, they look at potential candidates for the Los Angeles&amp;nbsp;Lakers' next head coach, how the Golden State Warriors might fare without Stephen Curry,&amp;nbsp;LeBron&amp;nbsp;James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Phil Jackson reportedly turning down Tom&amp;nbsp;Thibodeau.\u200B\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You can subscribe to the show on&amp;nbsp;iTunes,&amp;nbsp;Google Play,&amp;nbsp;Stitcher&amp;nbsp;or&amp;nbsp;SoundCloud, and you can find more great Sports Illustrated podcasts at&amp;nbsp;si.com/podcasts. Tweet Maggie at&amp;nbsp;@maggiegray&amp;nbsp;and use the hashtag #GrayArea to give the show feedback.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nba/2016/04/26/si-craig-sager-lee-jenkins-gray-area>