Contrary to the belief of a minority contingent of Utah Jazz fans, the Lakers' Derek Fisher is an extremely good dude. People rooting for the Jazz were pretty harsh in their treatment of Fisher on his way back to the Lakers, going so far as to accuse him of lying about his reasons for returning to the Lakers, then despicably mocking those reasons during the playoff series between the two clubs last season.
In case you don't recall, Fisher's only reason for leaving the Jazz was to seek a contract in a city that had the proper facilities to treat his daughter's life-threatening illness at the time. His daughter has successfully recovered from retinoblastoma (a cancerous tumor of the eye), and is doing just fine. But that doesn't mean that D-Fish has forgotten about the other sick children he's met during his daughter's treatment; in fact, it's quite the opposite.
Fisher can be seen wearing a light blue bracelet on his left wrist this season, and it's in honor of another child named Jimmy who Fisher met at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York while his daughter was being treated there. Apparently four-year old Jimmy isn't doing so well, so Fisher wanted to send a public message to the child and his family that he's pulling for him during this extremely tough time.
"We got an email from the family recently saying things had changed,” Fisher said. “I’m going to wear the bracelet during early part of the season so the family can see it on television and know that we are thinking about them.”
The fact that Fisher is making a public display for a young child stricken with the same illness as his daughter is commendable. Equally so, the fact that Jazz fans think he had some ulterior motive for leaving Utah and signing with Los Angeles is at this point, deplorable. Derek Fisher is truly one of the good guys in this league, period. And Jazz fans harboring any resentment or ill will towards the man simply need to let it go.
