Thank you very much. Thank you that's the lowest I've ever seen Dick Vitale since the the owner of the Detroit Pistons called him in and told him he should go into broadcasting. I can't tell you what an honor it is to even be mentioned the same breath with an Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever. But as as was said, on the tape, I also I don't have one of those things going into cue cards. So I'm going to speak longer than anybody else has spoken tonight. That's the way it goes. Time, time is very precious. To me. I don't know how much I have left. And I have some things that I would like to say, hopefully, at the end, I'll have something that will be important to to other people too, but I can't help it now. And I'm fighting cancer. Everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you, you go through your life and how's your day, and nothing is changed. For me as Dixon? I'm very emotional, passionate, man. I can't help but that's being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. That's it comes with the territory, right? We hug we kiss we love. And when people say to me, how do you get through life or each day is the same thing to me. There are three things we all should do every day, we do this every day of our life, you're going to have what a wonderful number one is laugh, you should laugh every day. Number two is think you should spend some time in thought. And number three, is you should have your emotions moved to tears could be happiness or joy. Think about it. If you laugh, you think and you cry. That's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're gonna have something special. And so I can't help. I wrote on the plane up today, what makes you Shecky my, my good friend and a wonderful coach of people don't realize he's a 10 times better person than he is a coach. And we know he's a great coach. He's meant a lot to me in these last five or six months of my battle. But when I look at Mike, I think we competed against each others as players. I coached against him 15 years. And I always have to think about what's important in life is to think to me three things where you started where you are and where you're going to be. Those are the three things that I try and do every day. And you know, when I think about getting up and giving a speech, I can't help it. I have to remember the first speech I ever gave. I was coaching at Rutgers University. It was my first job. Oh, I Oh, that's wonderful. And I was the freshman coach. That's when freshmen played on freshman team. And I was so fired up about my first job. I see Lou Holtz co cholsey. What was it like the first job you had, right? The very first time you stood in a locker room to give a pep talk? That's a special place the locker room for a coach to give a talk. So my idol as a coach was Vince Lombardi. And I read this book called commitment to excellence by Vince Lombardi. And in the book Lombardi talked about the first time he spoke before his Green Bay Packer team in a locker no pray losers. And I'm reading this and Lombardi said he was thinking should it be a long talk a short talk, but he wants to be emotionally should be brief. And this is what he did. He normally you get in a locked room, I don't know. 25 minutes a half hour before the team takes the field. You do the Alexa knows. And then you give the great Newt Rockne talk, we all do speech number 84. You pull him right out, you get to get ready to get your squadron was the first one I ever gave. And I read this thing. Lombardi, what he said was he didn't go in, he waited. His team was wondering, where is he? Where's this great coach. He's not there. 10 minutes, he's still not there. Three minutes before that's to take the field. Lombardi comes in, bangs the door open. And I think you all remember what great presence he had a great presence and he walked in and he just walked back and forth like this just staring at the players. And he said all eyes on me. I'm reading this in his book I'm getting a picture of this Lombardi before his first game and he said, Gentlemen, we will be successful this year, you can focus on three things and three things, only your family, your religion, and the Green Bay Packers, and he, and the rest of it, they knock the walls down the rest of his history. I said, that's beautiful. I'm gonna do your family, your religion and Rutgers basketball. That's it. I had it. I'm listening. I'm 21 years old, the kids I'm coaching a 90 All right, and and I'm going to be the greatest coach in the world the next Lombardi and I'm right and I'm practicing out in a website like when the man was telling you how to do it Not yet Not yet. Family religion, right girls basketball, all eyes on me I got I got and now finally he said three minutes. I said, Fine, true story. I go to knock the doors open just like the body. Boom. He didn't open.
I almost broke my arm. I was like, there was one I didn't open now I'm down to players look at coach get your help the coach up, help them up. And now I did like Lombardi I walked back and forth. And I was going like that my arm get the feeling back in. And finally I said, Gentlemen, all eyes. I mean, these kids wanted to play the 19. Let's go. I said, Gentlemen, we'll be successful this year, if you could focus on three things, and three things only said your family, your religion. And the Green Bay Packers, I told you. I did that. I remember that. I remember. I remember where I came from. It's so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? And I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream. A goal you have to be willing to work for. I talked about my family. My family is so important people that I have courage, the courage of my families, my wife, Pam, my three daughters here, Nicole, Jamie Lee, and my mom was right here too. And
and that screen is flashing up there. 30 seconds like I care about that screen right now. I got I got I got tumors all over my body. I'm worried about some guy in the back, go in 30 seconds. You gotta go, Hey, buddy, you gotta go. I just got one less thing I urge all of you, all of you to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have to spend each day with some laughter and some thought to get your emotions going to be enthusiastic every day. Ralph Waldo Emerson said nothing great can be comes without enthusiasm to keep your dreams alive, in spite of problems, whatever you have, the ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true become a reality. Now I, I look at where I am now. And I know what I want to do. What I would like to be able to do is to spend whatever time I have left, and to give maybe some hope to others. Right off ash Foundation is a wonderful thing. And age, the amount of money pouring in for AIDS is not enough. But it is significant. But if I told you it's 10 times the amount that goes in for cancer research, I'll also tell you that 500,000 People will die this year of cancer. And I also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease. And yet, somehow we seem to have put it in a little bit of a backbone, I want to bring it back on the front table. We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children's lives. It may save someone you love. And it's very important. And ESPN has been so kind to support me in this endeavor. And allow me to announce tonight that with ESPN support, which means what their their money and their dollars that they're helping me we are starting the Jim Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. And its, and its motto is don't give up. Don't ever give up. And that's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left. I will thank God for the day. And the moment I have and if you see me smile and maybe give me a hug because that's important to me too. But try if you can to support whether it's aids or Cancer Foundation, so that that someone else might survive might prosper and might actually be cured of this dreaded disease. I Can't thank ESPN. Enough for allowing this to happen. And I'm going to work as hard as I can, you know, for cancer research, and hopefully, we'll be, maybe we'll have some cures and some breakthroughs. And I'd like to think I'm going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year I know I gotta go. I gotta go. And I got one last thing. I said it before and I'm going to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind. It cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all.
