A very special good luck charm, and a feel good story.

[Cobalt]

Bear with me, because this might end up long, and at first might not make a little sense.

I'll start here. The NBA draft is unique in that the lowest 14 teams draft pick orders are determined by a lottery. The worse you did last year, the greater the chances. But, as with any game of chance, there's no guarantee that completely tanking your season will get you the top pick.

If you're asking "Okay, great. What's the point?" Well, one of the teams in the lottery was the Minnesota Timberwolves. Representing the team at the results show on ESPN, was the T'wolves Assistant General Manager, Fred Hoiberg. A name I never heard before, it turns out his playing career was cut short due to a heart abnormality that was corrected via open heart surgery. With him today, however, he brought a teddy bear, decked out with Timberwolves gear on.

This isn't just a trinket plucked from a kiosk at the arena, this bear belongs to a 12 year old from the Minnesota area. This boy's been a good luck charm for the team, they're 3-0 when he attends the games. But what's special about him, and his bear, is that he's had over 100 surgeries, including a liver transplant. This bear has been with him through all of the procedures. The boy and Hoiberg have become close friends. Hoiberg will visit him, talk basketball, and the child gives his honest opinion on what's happening.

I'm not sure why this struck me so deeply. I can tell you with all honesty, when they told why he had it with him, I nearly cried. There's something about this that truly reinforces my feelings that people are generally good. I don't know if it's the fact that you don't hear about this sort of thing all the time. Sure, athletes visit schools, camps, build houses for Habitat for Humanity, and so on. But I personally can't think of a time where I heard an athlete befriend a fan, be he ill or not. I suppose it's the way this feels like someone who's really wanted to do something nice, when he could easily have just said, "Hi, here's some tickets, thanks for being a fan."

Not that tickets are a bad thing. Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz has started a program called "Boozer's Buddies." I'm unsure of what year the program started, but last season, he bought 50 tickets for every single home game the Jazz play, and gave them to local kids.

I know it's been a long post. I just know that personally, I need a story like this from time to time.