When the cousin of Sixers guard Louis Williams, Miles, was diagnosed with Leukemia, Lou started doing work to raise bone marrow transplant awareness. Miles received a bone marrow transplant on Wednesday after much radiation treatment and chemotherapy.
Said Lou: "It puts everything in perspective, you know? It's a blessing for him to find a match, and it's also a great thing for him to try and get healthy again."
To get the word out about the options available, Lou is working with DKMS, "the world's largest bone marrow donor center" at Temple University this Tuesday, April 12th. The event, titled "Get Swabbed", has already got a bunch of Temple students to come out and help to save a life in the fight against Leukemia. Head on over to www.getswabbed.org to check it out yourself. Personally, I would've called the event "BOSSing for Bone Marrow".
Athletes have the power to get the word out to different communities that would otherwise not be listening to these important issues. Lou's doing his part to help people in the same position that his cousin was in since November when he was diagnosed with the disease. Good for Lou to keep going with this even after Miles got his transplant. I'm obviously not his biggest fan on the basketball court (or in the recording studio), but he's been a stand up guy with helping out in the community. So if you're in the Philadelphia area, check out the bone marrow drive and help save some lives.
Hit the jump for more quotes from Lou.
These from Larry Brown Sports, who got to talk to Lou about his injury and more.
It feels good for Coach Collins to have that much confidence in me and feel like I’m a vital part of this team. That’s the type of year and type of team we have with the Sixers. Everybody believes in each other and we’re a good team. We don’t have one superstar player, we need everybody on the same page, we need all our guys in order to win games.
Regarding sending guys down to the D-League:
I think it’s good for guys who have a bunch of talent but aren’t getting much playing time to go and get their confidence. I played three games in the D-League my second year, and it was able to get me kick-started for my career. I haven’t looked back since. I think it’s a great thing for young guys in the league who are trying to find their swag.
About the belief that being sent down is embarrassing:
Actually, I asked the team to allow me to go down and play. I was in my second year and wasn’t getting a lot of minutes behind A.I., so I was in a situation where I wanted to compete and play. They found a crease in the schedule where I could go down and play for three home games, so I don’t think it’s embarrassing at all.
That's really cool.
Regarding the infamous Lil Wayne game, would you do anything differently?
Absolutely not. It’s just a concert. People find anything to point the finger and blame for anything. Like I told Coach when the discussion came up, we’ve done a lot worse the night before a game instead of sitting in a suite enjoying a concert. I think that was all blown out of proportion. Every guy that was on our team that went to the concert played well except myself, so the theory that the concert lost the game for us is ridiculous.
I want to know what they've done that's a lot worse. Hannah Montana concert?
Yeah, we’re a square team. Without a doubt, we’re a square, square basketball team. We don’t have partiers, we don’t have a bunch of guys that like to do a bunch of things. Everybody comes in, does their works, goes home, and that’s really it. I’m probably the only guy with tattoos on our team, probably the only one with a little edgy personality, and that’s it. Outside of that, I think we’re a pretty square basketball team.
I know for a fact that Dongaila parties. He's always at the top of the guest list.