Worst way to wake up… From a Sportscenter alert… Pop on the television and hear people talk about Stuart Scott in the past tense. Heck, I still can’t get used to it. This one hurts me. I’ve been pretty lucky. I haven’t had many loved ones pass away knock on wood. Still have both my parents, and my brother. I’ve had two grandparents pass away, but that happened before I was a teenager, before I even knew what context was, nevertheless had it. So, I haven’t had to face the death of someone that I really came to know. And I think we all felt like we knew Stuart Scott. Which is why, fittingly, that he conjured the biggest JimmyV Day I’ve ever had. I haven’t laughed, thought, and cried as much as I did yesterday.

It’s fitting because the last moment we’ll remember Stu for on television was his speech after getting the JimmyV Award for courage. Redefined fighting cancer. Said, you beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the matter of which you live. Think about it. He IS this generation’s Jim Valvano. And the sad thing is, that we need a this generations JimmyV. And the way it’s looking, the next generation might need their Stuart Scott. Heck, Craig Sager is battling leukemia right now. Cancer Sucks.

But, Stuart Scott certainly didn’t. I really don’t know a sports world without him. I was born in 1991, he got to ESPN in 1993. I’ve said on this show that Allen Iverson is the reason I like sports. In that same way, Stuart Scott is the reason I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. I’m an African-American, from a Philly suburb, influenced by the hip-hop era. Stu gave the hip-hop era a narrator. So yes, include me in the many that used him as an inspiration, a role model… I wanted to be him, use his style, his phrases. But realized I can’t for a number of reasons. What he did represent is the fact that you can be yourself, and not only be good enough, but be THE BEST. And that’s why the support and reaction has been so widespread. Because everyone wishes they can be the best version of themselves.

So, that’s what I’ll work on. Every day when I prepare for a broadcast. Every day when I’m at an event to call. Every day I step in these studios. I need to do my best to be the best version of me… For Stu, it got him to be dubbed “The Sound of Change”. And as a viewer, that change was a constant in my sports fandom.