Following the death of ESPN’s Stuart Scott, fellow anchors Rich Eisen, Hannah Storm, and Dan Patrick reacted.
Eisen gave a moving speech:
I loved this man. I still love this man, and the fact that he has passed away is absolutely mind-boggling, and a travesty. He battled cancer as bravely as anybody else, and I know there are many people out there who are battling cancer right now… Stuart would want you to know to keep fighting, and that he didn’t lose his battle with cancer. He fought it as bravely as he possibly could. And as you go to bed tonight, flip your pillow over to the cool side, and before you go to sleep — as Stuart would say, when you hit your knees tonight — and pray to the big man for his beautiful daughters who he loved, Taelor and Sydni.
“He didn’t just push the envelope,” ex-ESPN anchor Dan Patrick said, per the website. “He bulldozed the envelope.”
ESPN adds:
Patrick remembers an epic basketball game at the YMCA. “Stuart was playing like it was the seventh game of the NBA Finals, and he’s guarding me like I’m Michael Jordan. ... I drive to the hoop, he undercuts me, I fall on my back and nearly pass out. I go back out on the floor, say, ‘Give me the damn ball,’ Stuart D’s me up, make the shot, walk off the floor and go to the emergency room because I chipped a vertebrae.
“I recently told that story on the air. And Stuart tweets, ‘You may have scored, but I sent you to the hospital.’ That’s my Stuart.”
Storm also gave her reaction, which can be seen here.
ESPN confirmed Scott died from cancer at age 49 on Sunday. He leaves behind a girlfriend and two daughters.