Derek Fisher, Confucian Gentleman

     Derek Fisher is a professional basketball player.  He is also a father.  And his two roles came into heart-rending conflict this week:

Fisher, a point guard for the Utah Jazz, sat in an office at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, across from Dr. David Abramson and Dr. Pierre Gobin, asking them how to cure the cancer that had formed in his baby girl’s retina.

 The operation his daughter required had to take place immediately, during the NBA playoffs.  Fisher faced a choice: be with his girl or his teammates, who needed his veteran skills.  He did the right thing:

[Doctor] Abramson asked Fisher whether they should try to push the appointment back. “Absolutely not,” Abramson recalls Fisher telling him. “Just do what’s best for my child. How many games I miss in the playoffs is totally irrelevant.”

Abramson was still not convinced. “I understand,” he remembered telling Fisher. “But this is the pinnacle of what you do. Maybe we can make some adjustments.”

Fisher was unmoved. “Absolutely not,” he said again.

 Somewhere Confucius and Mencius are smiling.   Fisher chose his family over his career, he chose to "cherish the young," and stand by his duties as a father.  He is a model for us all.

Comments

[Charlie]

It's quite an uplifting story - particularly the bit where he arrives for the game straight from the airport, warms up, comes in near the end and knocks down 10 points in 5 minutes to see the Jazz to an OT win.

I'd be interested in your take on GSW guard Baron Davis - presumably through the course of Chinese history there have been men vilified and confined to the scrap heap, only to rise and achieve victory and personal glory where it is least expected?

Is Baron Davis the NBA's Mao Zedong, I ask?

[Sam]

Charlie,
Mao is not the right analogy for Davis. Once he got into power, in 1935, Mao pretty much stayed there until he died in 1976, quite a long run (OK, he had some trouble in 1957 when he encouraged the Hundred Flowers campaign, and then had to join his critics to do the Anti-Rightst campaign...). I know he was "out in the woods" in 1927, but he was at the top for too long to compare with Davis, who was where - Charlotte, New Orleans... not quite top of the line... No, Mao was more like Kareem.
Perhaps the better comparison for Davis is Deng Xiaoping, who would have been a point guard if he had played in the NBA (what a thought! Mugsy Bogues would tower over him!). Deng would have been fearless going inside with the big men, and his white cat/black cat ball handling skills got him politically rehabilitated twice. Davis has led Golden State in from the winless wilderness; Deng brought China out of the Maoist cold. There's a parallel there...

[Charlie]

I bow to your superior knowledge...

[william Candia]

Dear Mr. Fisher,

Please go to a search engine and type: oxone/cancer. You may find a non invasive approach to your daughters illness.

Yours truly,
William