Wayman Tisdale

ESPN.COM

Time to get back into it.

It's been 3 months (to the day) since my last blog post. On January 15, 2009, I wrote about Coach Kay Yow and her battle against Breast Cancer. The post was written from my father's hospital bedside as he was recovering from surgery to treat his pancreatic cancer.

Unfortunately, the cancer had progressed too far by that time and he decided to forego chemotherapy and entered hospice care. I and the rest of my family took time off from our other pursuits to be with him and my mother and to make sure that he was comfortable.

Last month, he died peacefully at his home, and I began to mourn his loss.

I wasn't sure when I'd feel ready to start writing about basketball medicine again. It's a topic I love to think about and discuss, but it just didn't feel right to return to it. The piles of related research articles and papers grew on my desk as I waited for the time that it felt right to return to this blog.

Now's the time.

I previously wrote about Mr Tisdale in an earlier post. As I learned more about him, I realized that this was a man who contributed in many different ways, not just on the basketball court.

In an AP News article from today, the Governor of the State of Oklahoma said, "Wayman Tisdale was a hero both on and off the basketball court. ... Even in the most challenging of times, he had a smile for people, and he had the rare ability to make everyone around him smile. He was one of the most inspirational people I have ever known."

Kirk Whalum, a jazz saxaphonist who worked with Tisdale, described him as "a big guy with a big sound and just an incredibly warm and gentle heart. "

That's the kind of person you want to have in your life, not just on the court. And the world is a better place when people like him can excel in basketball, and use that noteriety to touch people's lives.

It touched mine today. Having been born in the same year as Mr Tisdale, his life, cut too short, motivates me to get back into it now and do what I can to help others enjoy, participate, and learn from the game of basketball.

May he rest in peace (and harmony).