At the 2019 NBA Awards, Good Morning America co-host and cancer survivor Robin Roberts gave a stirring, emotional speech after winning the Sager Strong Award: “Make your mess your message.”

Roberts, a longtime broadcaster of women’s basketball games who was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012, was honored for her both her strong connection to the sport as well as her very public and very courageous campaigns to raise awareness about breast cancer and the bone marrow disease, myelodysplastic syndrome. She was diagnosed with the former in 2007 and the latter in 2012 and did not shy away from talking about how she dealt with those diseases.

“The only time that I am at a loss for words when it come to Craig: his wardrobe,” Roberts joked. Then referring to the garish, custom-tailored jacket she received as her award in honor of longtime TNT sports broadcaster Craig Sager, who succumbed to leukemia in 2016 and was notorious for pushing the sartorial envelope, she added: “I cannot wait to wear this on the air. If this doesn’t wake you up in the morning, I don’t know what will.”

“We were both inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame the same year and I was really looking forward to seeing him that night, but he was too ill to attend,” Roberts recalled. “We were so devastated when he passed away the very next day.”

Watch the video below, via YouTube.

“Mama used to say ‘Everybody’s got something.’ A challenge that you face, already have faced or about to face,” Roberts said. “I urge you not to compare your despair. I don’t know what your ‘something’ is, but I do know that we’re all stronger than we think we are.”

“And for everyone who has said a prayer for me,” Roberts said, pausing to gather her emotions. “Thank you, bless you, and right back at you.”

Screengrab via TNT.

from Mediaite http://bit.ly/2X03tjB