Marc Gasol has touching moment with a young fan (video)

Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol shared a special moment with a young fan that neither will soon forget. 

The NBA can be daunting to follow. There are player-coach feuds, player-player feuds, player-owner feuds, and of course, the prospect of rooting for the Knicks.

Plenty of people have grown up idolizing basketball players, only to have their childhood idealism shattered when they find out what that player is really like.

So it’s especially nice when basketball players and teams do something genuinely nice and selfless. Earlier this week, the Atlanta Hawks signed a young fan with Leukemia to a one-day contract.

Now, if you want your heart to really melt, you can watch this touching exchange between Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol and a young fan at the game.

If you weren’t sure what true happiness looks like, just look at that kid’s face at the end of that video.

This is the nice part of following basketball. Some players realize what a difference they can make to a fan, and act on it. That’s what Marc Gasol is doing here.

This same young fan received a warm-up jersey from Gasol’s teammate Zach Randolph last year, so he’s clearly very special to the Grizzlies.

Moments like this are reminders of why people idolize athletes. Because sometimes, an athlete does something like this, and reminds us why we care.

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