5 Moments in Which Sportscaster Ernie Johnson Inspired Us All

Last night, TNT’s Inside the NBA kicked off its Thursday broadcast by touching on the topic of Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States. Although usually spending the majority of its time analyzing the NBA’s broadcasted games of that respective night, the Emmy Award-winning crew – consisting of Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley – sometimes break up the monotony to discuss relevant subject matters of the nation. While the latter is usually known for his controversial comments and outrageous bets on the show, it was host Ernie Johnson Jr. who provided the commentary of the night with an appeasing, optimistic and hopeful earful to all of America (see below).

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, seeing that Ernie Johnson has given the world a number of other riveting moments in media that will prompt anyone to look at themselves in the mirror twice. Today, we revive five moments in which world-renowned sportscaster Ernie Johnson Jr. inspired us all to be better humans.

Moments after receiving his third Emmy Award for best studio host, Johnson presented the trophy to the daughters of the late ESPN anchor Stuart Scott, who died on January 4, 2015 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

In 2003, E.J. was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma but continued his work duties throughout the process up until June 2006 before taking a 4-month break. He provided this riveting speech about his tumultuous battle with cancer to a group of people during an event for the Athletes in Action nonprofit organization a year after returning to his seat as sports as host of Inside the NBA.

Ernie and his wife have two biological children and four adopted children – one of which is Michael, a Romanian boy diagnosed with duchenne muscular dystrophy. He discusses the great joy, love and satisfaction he and his wife have for Michael in addition to discussing the great challenges of raising him.

In one of his best interviews ever, Ernie conversed with his friend, Craig Sager – who has been battling acute myeloid leukemia for two and a half years – and provided great voiceovers and casual, motivating and uplifting commentary throughout the piece.

And last night’s show was the platform for what might be his most exhilarating and heartening piece yet.