“Without a doubt, my favorite moment from this year’s Slam occurred during the Banquet – among the seven awards that I have the pleasure of handing out with my boss Ken McAllister, are the Sportsmanship Awards that the kids vote on. That means rather than being selected, albeit nobly, by the Awards committee – these recipients are selected by their peers. All of us know there is no higher validation, and this year’s recipients were no less worthy. But it was some special moment when Ken introduced the final winner, and he made his way to the stage. We are all acutely aware of what a year that Chase Curry has been through, and how incredibly fortunate he, and all of us who know him are that he is still here with us. I dare say I wasn’t the only one with goose bumps and a tear in my eye when the 400 attendees at the banquet, instantaneously and without prompting, leapt to their feet for a standing ovation to a peer they were just happy to share a few more moments with. Chase only found out early in the afternoon that he had been selected, and rushed from Wichita Falls to College Station in order to share that moment with us all. It was an incredible moment, and one neither I nor anyone else present will forget. That was made all the more special when I saw him out hitting balls with his little sister a couple of morning’s later. Kind of keep things in perspective.”