Marcus Smart has a job that often requires him to take charges from players 4 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier. After his Celtics played six games in nine nights, he was tired and sore.But as he finished his shooting drills, he got himself in the right mood for a charity event he was hosting at the teams practice facility for Childrens Hospital patients and their families.The plan: a video game extravaganza for the patients, who arrived with delight to find Xbox and PlayStation consoles set up around the court. Soon Smart was feeding off the energy of the beaming kids, while the children reveled in a fun NBA respite from the needles, chemotherapy and drudgery of being chronically ill. For a few hours at least, things were a little fun.The afternoon was winding down, and Smart was satisfied his days work was complete -- until, while everyone was packing up, he was approached by the brother of a patient named Damone.Damone, the worlds biggest 16-year-old Marcus Smart fan, was hospitalized with lymphoma and was devastated he was missing this day because he was too ill to leave the hospital.Smart looked at his watch. It had been a long day, but what was one more hour? He drove to Childrens to meet Damone, who, his family explained, had been listless and despondent and hadnt left his bed for weeks. Damone had undergone a bone marrow transplant, and his prognosis was dire. He had lost hope, addressing his family in monosyllabic tones.He was really struggling, really depressed, Smart says. He wouldnt talk to anyone.But when Smart strode into his room, Damone came alive. For the first time in weeks, he sat up. He recited Smarts high school statistics from Flower Mound, Texas, and even rattled off the names and ages of Smarts brothers.One of those brothers, Todd Westbrook, a former all-district player from Lancaster, Texas, was diagnosed with cancer at age 15. He battled his illness for nearly two decades and died at the age of 33, leaving behind a heartbroken younger sibling. Smart says Todds resilience has remained a driving force in his own quest to become an NBA star.Maybe the death of Smarts own brother from cancer is what moved him to reach out to Damone. Maybe thats why the two of them were able to talk so easily and so frankly.I dont know how to describe it, Smart says. You know when you have a special connection with someone that you cant explain? This little guy did it for me.Smart visited with Damone for nearly half an hour. He chatted with him about basketball and about his illness. They talked about Todd Westbrook and his courage in facing his disease. Damone hung on every word.It was the first time the doctors and his parents had seen any positive reaction from him in a long time, Smart says.The following day, on Friday, Jan. 22, Smart and the Celtics played host to the Chicago Bulls. He arranged to have pizza sent to Damones hospital room while he watched the game with his parents. Smart wrote Damones name on his shoes and dedicated the game to him, which the Celtics won 110-101.After the game, Smart motioned to Heather Walker, senior director of public relations of the Celtics, and gave her his sneakers.Make sure Damone gets them, he told her.Walker called Childrens Hospital the next morning to arrange for the shoes to be delivered. What she discovered took her breath away: sometime during the night, after the pizza party and the Celtics victory, Damone had passed away.The news left Smart sobbing like a small child. Nearly a year later, the mention of Damones name still leaves him fighting back tears.I think about him a lot, Smart says. I wish I could have done more.Damones death has left Smart more resolute about understanding pediatric cancer and its unique challenges. The physicians at Childrens allowed him to visit their stem cell research center, where Smart learned neurologists have developed a low-cost test to detect tumors, a welcome alternative to the pricey CT scans that are often difficult for families to afford. Smart was fascinated to discover there is a 3-D model of the brain that physicians practice on before they actually operate on their young patients.None of it can bring back his brother Todd or his pal Damone, but there will be more kids just like them, and Smart promises to be there for them.The one thing I do take out of it, is for that one night, I could make Damone laugh and smile, Smart says. I think thats all he wanted -- to have one more kid moment. 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Every day Im flooded with messages from Indians all over the world telling me they are supporting me. Wil Lutz Saints Jersey . It was the kind of score that might make everyone else wonder which course he was playing. Except that Graeme McDowell saw the whole thing. Crouched behind the 10th green at Sheshan International, McDowell looked over at the powerful American and said, "Ive probably seen 18 of the best drives Ive seen all year in the last two days. Its more than three months since the Australian womens rugby sevens side claimed the first ever Olympic sevens gold medal, but the title Olympic Champion remains as surreal as ever for Charlotte Caslick.With her exciting style of play and trademark braids, Caslick quickly became the face of sevens at the 2016 Rio Games. Hammering in defence and sharp in attack, the scrum-half dominated the competition, scoring seven tries across the three days of play, only missing in two games.Despite her sides achievements, Caslick continues to be amazed when the public recognizes her -- especially out of uniform.Yeah, [I am still walking on air] a little bit, Caslick told ESPN. Its a massive privilege to be able to classify us in that group of elite athletes - its obviously the pinnacle of all sports. Its always quite surreal telling someone youre an Olympic gold medallist.Sometimes [I dont have to tell people who I am], but I guess we look kind of different from when we play footy to what we do when were just walking around the streets. Some people definitely do recognise us, which is a bit surreal still as well; we never really expect people to know what we did or anything. But its always awesome when little kids come over and ask for autographs and stuff like that.The 21-year-old is no stranger to success. A national 800m champion in primary school and Australian touch football representative at both age-grade and open levels, she made the move to sevens at 18 and quickly caught the eye of coaches.Caslick won a gold medal at the Australian Youth Games festival in her debut season and was selected in the 2013 Australian World Cup team that competed in Russia. Just over a year later, she was named in World Rugbys 2014-15 Team of the Season and was nominated for the 2015 World Sevens Player of the Year.Its been a rapid rise for the Queenslander.It is crazy, it definitely happened really quickly, Caslick said. When we first went into it, Rio was our goal and a gold medal was our goal, so for the last four years weve been dreaming about that. But in comparison to other sports it did all happen very quickly.Securing their first ever World Rugby Sevens Series title just months out from the Olympics, the Aussie girls headed to Rio as clear favourites for gold.The pressure of expectation could have been an issue, but Caslick said the group learned to block out the white noise and focus only on themselves. In doing just that, the Aussies conceded a mere 34 points for the tournament and wowed a whole new audience with their entertaining attack play.Im not really surprised, I think we play an amazing style of rugby, Caslick said when asked about the groups new-found fame. If people didnt like watching it I dont know what theyre on about. I think the way we play is exciting and fast, and the calibre of players we have on our team; Im not surprised at all that people loved it.dddddddddddd think weve definitely won them over. The reception we got when we came home was just incredible, especially in the non-traditional rugby states of Australia. They all seemed to get behind us as well.Caslick capped an extraordinary 2016 when she was crowned the World Rugby Womens Sevens Player of the Year, the highest individual honour in the games shortened form. ?Its awesome, Caslick said. Its sometimes hard to get individual accolades, especially in a team sport, but its obviously a representation of how well the team performed this year.Without the girls out there I cant do my job properly. I definitely think its a representation of how we went [this season], and our style of footy we play allows me to play my best I guess.Caslicks response to the award was typical of her down-to-earth personality, but her work off the field certainly reflects her caring nature.Working alongside Australian mens Sevens player Jesse Parahai with his company Sense Rugby, the 21-year-old helps children with learning difficulties in providing an opportunity to experience team sports, something they may not otherwise get the chance to do. And she does it purely because she loves kids.Its an awesome group to work for, Caslick said. I love children and theyre kids who struggle to take instructions at a young age, so this gives them a chance to form their own teams or communities.Sometimes these kids can get left behind when it comes to team sports, but weve already seen some kids go back to play with their old teams.Despite a huge 2016 that involved the team winning almost every medal and award, Caslick was disappointing the Aussie side wasnt nominated for World Rugbys Team of the Year Award.It was a little bit disappointing [not getting nominated], considering we achieved the exact same goals of what Fiji had done, she said. But I guess, the position Fiji were in, to win their countrys first gold medal ever...Its disappointing, but were not there to win awards. Im sure the girls will go out next year and just keep playing footy and enjoying what we do. All of that stuff comes when youre just having fun and that breeds success.Back after a short break, Caslick has returned to training and is focused on the 2016/17 World Series, with the Australians kicking off their title defence in Dubai.Can 2016 be topped?We have to go back-to-back now, Caslick said.? The New Zealand womens team have won back-to-back World Series.So for us, this season, its all about character and backing up what weve done in the last season.? We definitely dont want to be one-hit-wonders, so we want to go out there and just keep our consistency up. ' ' '