Pacers Pay Visit to St. Jude’s in Memphis

The Pacers were on the first leg of a week-long business trip but several members of their traveling party made a point to make it something bigger. After arriving in Memphis on Sunday, they voluntarily visited St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an environment to treat children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.

Seven players in total – George Hill, Roy Hibbert, Lance Stephenson, D.J. Augustin, Jeff Pendergraph, Miles Plumlee and Orlando Johnson – opted to spend part of their evening interacting with kids that have faced incredible challenges at very young ages. Head coach Frank Vogel, assistants Dan Burke and Jim Boylen and other staff members all took part in the opportunity to help the kids.

They aimed to raise the children’s spirits, encourage them to keep fighting and for at least the short time that they were there, make them forget about what cancer or deadly disease they have.

A visit to St. Jude’s can also be humbling.

The experience has simply been described as moving.

The Pacers aren’t the only ones that make it a priority to swing by St. Jude’s while in town to play the Memphis Grizzlies. Many other teams drop in, part of Hoops for St. Jude, a join effort between St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and NBA Cares. As the Pacers left, the Lakers were scheduled to arrive and center Pau Gasol tweeted how much he looked forward to visiting the children and showing his support.

Right after we landed in Memphis, I’m on my way to @stjude to visit some of the kids at the hospital. Always very humbled & inspired by them

— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) January 22, 2013