Craig Sager

Born in Batavia, Illinois, sideline reporter Craig Sager began his career in sports coverage in 1972, working for WXLT in Sarasota, FL. He was present at third base when Hank Aaron arrived there after hitting his 715th home run, breaking the record held by Babe Ruth. In the early 80s Sager joined the team at CNN, after his experience covering the network's very first remote report from the 1980 baseball playoffs. Sager also co-anchored the network's "CNN Sports Tonight"(CNN, 1980-2001) (CNN-SI, 1996-2002), for which he won a CableAce award in 1985. Following his work for CNN, Sager became a sideline reporter for "The NBA on TNT" (TNT, 1989-). Additionally, Sager has reported for The Goodwill Games, the Pan American Games, and the 1990 FIFA World Cup and covered curling and Nordic skiing for TNT during their coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympics. Sager appears in the sports video game NBA 2K, as a sideline reporter. Sager was loaned out to NBC Sports in 1999 where he was a field reporter during the network's coverage of the National League Championship Series and the World Series. Sager also covered basketball during the Beijing Olympics in 2008 for NBC, and in 2016 performed the same role for network during the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Craig Sager died of acute myeloid leukemia on December 15, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was 65.