Fisher does it again, this time for his ill daughter

Derek Fisher has hit huge shots throughout his career, but none may have been as big and as important as the three-pointer that he hit last night in the Utah Jazz's 127-117 win over the Golden State Warriors in overtime. The Jazz now lead the second round series, 2-0 and they series is headed to Golden State now.

It wasn't so much that he hit a big shot in the playoffs that put his team up by four points, it's more of the circumstances of the shot. Fisher missed the first game of the series to be with his family, because his daughter was ill. But no one knew the severity of the his 10-month old daughter's, Tatum, condition. Tatum Fisher has retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer that required a three-hour combination of surgery and chemotherapy at New York’s Presbyterian Hospital. And Fisher was with her and the rest of his family all day before boarding a plane and rushing to the game just in time to check in at 3:12 in the third quarter. He didn't even get the chance to warm up before entering the game, he arrived to a roar of applause from the crowd and the other players, greeted a few of his teammates and then was asked by Jazz coach, Jerry Sloan, "are you ready to play?", he said yes and was in the game. He didn't play too much then, but he was huge in overtime, scoring all five of his points and finishing off the game with two free-throws.

“I don’t know how I got through this tonight. I really don’t,” said Fisher, who hit his only shot, a 3-pointer.

“My daughter’s doing well,” Fisher said. “We had a successful operation in New York and I flew back and got off the plane and came to the game. I’m speechless.”

Also, Larry Brown over at Larry Brown Sports, wrote a great post on this story.