Bob Costas pays tribute to Craig Sager on Thursday Night Football (Video)

NBC Sports’ Bob Costas paid tribute to the late NBA on TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager, who passed away on December 15, on Thursday Night Football.

The sports media world lost a beloved character on Thursday, Dec. 15 when NBA on TNT’s Craig Sager passed away at the age of 65 from leukemia. Sager had been with Turner for over 30 years and was best known for his great joy, professionalism, and flashy suits on big time NBA games.

Sager may have been a major figure in the NBA, but his impact across all sports media is certainty felt. Here is NBC Sports’ Bob Costas paying tribute to the late Sager on Thursday Night Football the day of his passing.

Costas has been a sports broadcaster for NBC since the early 1980s doing all kinds of sports. He initially got his start as a broadcaster doing ABA games for the Spirits of St. Louis. Costas definitely cut his teeth on the hardwood and fully appreciates the impact that Sager had on the NBA.

Costas best encapsulated Sager as ‘a character’, how he loved what he did for a living, and how he always asked the right questions as a sideline reporter. The NBA, and the sports media world in general, lost an irreplaceable piece in Sager on Thursday afternoon.

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Sager made sideline reporting cool. He always made the most of his camera time, getting all the information he needed and getting the occasional laugh out of the person he was interviewing. Sager may have worked for a rival television network in Turner, but he was beloved by media members all across the country for his contributions to professional sports.