Through popularity and sickness, Craig Sager was always humble, hard-working reporter .……

Craig Sager was always in on the joke. That’s what you liked about him. He was the guy that found the prop­er bal­ance between tak­ing his job seri­ous­ly but nev­er him­self. The kind of per­son you want­ed to be around.

That’s why Sager worked so well with Marv Albert and Charles Barkley, the res­i­dent wise guys at Turner Sports who made Sager and his col­or­ful out­fits the butt of the count­less jokes for near­ly two decades.

When Howard Cosell was at the height of his pop­u­lar­i­ty, hav­ing him and ABC’s Monday Night Football in your city meant it was a big event. Sager and his wardrobe did the same for the NBA and TNT on Thursday’s.

We were seat­ed next to each oth­er in Boston near­ly 10 years when an irate Knicks fan — is there any oth­er kind? — threw his jer­sey onto the court once the Celtics extend­ed their lead to 50. Sager looked at me, smiled, and said that it may be a while “before the Knicks are back on TNT again.”

Sports world reacts to the loss of TNT’s NBA reporter Craig Sager

“He under­stood that the job was about enter­tain­ment and pre­sen­ta­tion,” said his long-time col­league and friend Scooter Vertino. “Craig nev­er lost sight of that.”

NBA play­ers show their appre­ci­a­tion for Sager at the ESPY awards ear­li­er this year. (CHRIS PIZZELLO/​CHRIS PIZZELLO/​INVISION/​AP)

Vertino was a field pro­duc­er when he first met Sager 21 years ago, a kid try­ing to make a name in the busi­ness while learn­ing from an estab­lished reporter. Read more here : http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/craig-sager-humble-hard-working-reporter-article‑1.2912379