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Seven years ago, former Los Angeles Clippers head coach Kim Hughes was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the ensuing aftermath will change the way you feel about several NBA types significantly.

Beyond that, nothing. Until Tuesday afternoon, when Howard Beck brought this column to Trey Kerby's attention, and he brought it to our attention. And now we're passing the feel-good savings on to you, in the form of an anecdote that reveals that NBA players Corey Maggette, Marko Jaric, Chris Kaman and Elton Brand all chipped in to pay for expensive life-saving surgery for Hughes, after the Clippers organization (read: Donald Sterling, noted worst person in the world) declined to cover the costs.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... =nba-wp184

After reading this I feel that Sterling has to go as the owner. However I do think it was big of these players to pay for an expensive surgery.

Yep, really doesn't look good for the Clippers...But this happened a while ago (7 years, to be exact). Doesn't excuse it, but I'm sure things have changed by now. Big props to the players, though...

On a lighter note, someone made a joke on another board that got me to chuckle...Something to the effect of "Good, Maggette is overpaid anyway."

I agree with you, though, about Sterling. I really wish Geffen would have been able to buy the team. This, along with the Baylor lawsuit, along with Rosen's "We don't sell winning, we sell hope," along with the heckling. Just doesn't look good, and is no wonder we don't land big free agents.

Bravo to Chris Kaman, Corey Maggette, Marko Jaric and Elton Brand for their kind and charitable support of Kim. You love to see that type of thing. It kind of explains the relationship that Kim and Chris have had over the years. Chris' development was primarily due to Kim, who even spent a large portion of one summer with Chris sailing around Mexico on Chris' boat. Kim said that he'd give a kidney to any of those guys who helped him in his time of need.

As far as the organization's involvement, I do understand the position of if you bend the rules (paying for a surgeon that's outside of the insurance network) for one then you have to do the same for everyone else. It really does suck given the circumstances, but I do understand it. Overall, I think that too much time is spent blasting the organization and even Sterling for this matter, rather than giving the players their props for doing an admirable thing. Would it have been great to see Sterling step up to the plate and help out for an employee? Totally. Kim stayed with the organization for 6 or so years after this incident, and didn't seem to let it hold him down.

This is a business and most businesses would do the same given the circumstances. Other organizations/companies may have handled the situation differently, but that is an exception not the standard. As it is, the owner of this franchise and the franchise itself are easy targets for bad publicity, so many people are willing to believe the headlines and forming an opinion rather than reading the entire article and putting some thought into it. I'm not a Sterling fan by any means at all, but I want to be fair.

Any of us would love to become owner one day, so that the organization could be run with total dignity and legitimacy. If that doesn't happen, another owner that would do the same and keep the franchise in the Los Angeles area would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah, I agree, MK...I just kind of think something is being left out here. Nevertheless, when your assistant coach has cancer (This is an assistant coach we're talking about here, not a janitor), I think you go ahead and bend the rules to pay for the surgery. If you're worried about setting a precedent, then fine, you're just going to have to pay for cancer treatment of your employees, if the slight possiblitiy arises that they have cancer or some other terrible medical issue...It's not that difficult, and besides, I'm not sure the $70,000 is really worth all of the negative publicity that he's getting, but Sterling is who he is, and none of us can change him. Even with this bad pub., I honestly don't think he cares. He will always make money on this franchise no matter how bad we are.

It ges to show that inspite of allthe bad things that go around in the world today. That there are some humble ppl who are willing to step up and help someone who's in need. These 4 guys did just that seven yrs ago.