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. I thank God I had the chance to give him that. Wholesale NFL Jerseys For Sale . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla. http://www.cheapnfljerseysbywholesale.com/ . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. NFL Jerseys Outlet .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. Wholesale Nike Jerseys .ca NFL Power Rankings, overtaking the Denver Broncos and remaining ahead of NFC competition San Francisco, Carolina and New Orleans. WASHINGTON -- The day began with manager Davey Johnson calling a team meeting in which he appealed for more aggression at the plate and mistook his starting pitchers heat pad for a neck brace. It ended with the Washington Nationals accomplishing something they hadnt done all season -- coming from three runs down to win a ballgame. The Nationals swept a day-night doubleheader from the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, climbing back to .500 and showing signs of an offensive breakthrough by pounding out a combined 24 hits in the 7-0 opener and 5-4 nightcap. "I dont know if Ive ever played a doubleheader," said shortstop Ian Desmond, "where you pretty much had to win both." That sums up the angst that was spreading among the preseason NL East favourite Nationals, even though there are still 100 games to go before the finish line of the regular season. "Its good to get back to .500 -- and get on with it," Johnson said. Desmond doubled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning of the second game after Jordan Zimmermann dominated the opener, allowing two hits over seven innings. Zimmermann (9-3) struck out eight with a season-high 111 pitches while dropping his ERA to 2.00. He moved into a tie with Bostons Clay Buchholz, Arizonas Patrick Corbin and St. Louis Adam Wainwright for most wins in the majors. Zimmermann had Johnson worried before the game when the pitcher showed up for the team meeting with something on his neck. The right-hander has had a stiff neck off-and-on for a couple of weeks. "Im hoping he wears that neck brace every time he goes out," Johnson said. "That was a heck of a game." Zimmermann later clarified that it was actually a heating pad, a precautionary measure after feeling some tightness a few days ago. "I didnt want to take any chances," Zimmermann said. "So I figure heat it up and itll be good to go." Johnson also joked that he might have to hold more team meetings after watching his offence score five runs in the fifth inning of the first game. The Nationals had totalled just 14 runs in their previous seven games. "Ill have it every day if we get 14 hits and seven runs, but it wasnt much of a meeting," Johnson said. "It was about three minutes or something like that. I was just cheering em up." Asked what he got from the meeting, second baseman Anthony Rendon said: "Swing." "Just be aggressive," Rendon said. "Thats basically what he was trying to say. Just go out there and try to hit." And thats what they did. The Nationals scored a pair in the fourth and five in the fifth to chase starter Scott Diamond (4-5), using a lineup that had a pair of natural second basemen in the outfield -- Jeff Kobernus in centre, Steve Lombardozzi in left -- and a converted third baseman, Rendon, at second. Regular centre fielder Denard Span missed the first game after fouling a pitch off his right foot in Saturdays 11-inning lloss, but played in the nightcap.dddddddddddd. Usual left fielder Bryce Harper is on the disabled list with a sore knee and was en route for his Monday appointment with renowned specialist Dr. James Andrews. The Nationals, who have come from two runs down to win only twice this season, climbed their way back from a 4-1 hole in the second game. They scored single runs in the first, third, fifth, sixth and seventh, with Desmond extending his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games with his double off reliever Anthony Swarzak (1-2). "Normally, early on in the season, when we would get behind, we would just kind of fold and give away at-bats," said Span, who had an RBI triple to tie the game in the sixth. "And (tonight) we just kept fighting and having good at-bats." Tyler Clippard (5-1) pitched the seventh to get the win, Drew Storen handled the eighth and Rafael Soriano the ninth for his 16th save. The nightcap was played before a small crowd -- it was the makeup from Fridays rainout -- and was mostly a tedious game of attrition between recent Triple-A call-ups. Minnesotas Samuel Deduno laboured through five innings in his fourth start since arriving from Rochester, and Washingtons Nathan Karns lasted only three innings in his third start since getting a promotion from Syracuse. Both teams wasted plenty of chances -- they combined to leave 18 runners on base -- and the Twins managed only two runs in the second and two in the third against Karns, who is expected to go back to Syracuse once Stephen Strasburg comes off the disabled list in a few days. Pedro Florimon hit a two-run homer in the third for Minnesota, but more typical was Eduardo Escobar getting stranded at third after a leadoff triple in the sixth. "Hit some balls right on the screws, seemed to go right at them," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "They got a couple of big hits and ended up getting the win. Very frustrating game for us." The Twins helped out the Nationals cause in the first game with some flubs in the field. First baseman Justin Morneau allowed an extra run to score when he failed to come off the bag to field a late, off-target throw from Florimon, and Washingtons five-run barrage in the fifth was possible because of a grounder misplayed by second baseman Brian Dozier, who somehow wasnt charged with an error. "I know they gave it a hit, but this is the big leagues, folks," Gardenhire said. "Thats an error. Thats two steps to his right." NOTES: The second game included a 12-minute rain delay. ... Minnesota CF Aaron Hicks left the nightcap with a strained left hamstring after running to first on a groundout in the fifth inning. ... Twins RHP Ryan Pressley left the first game in the seventh inning with a sore right triceps. "He should be just fine," Gardenhire said. ... Kobernus made his first major league start in the opener and got his first career hit, an infield single in the third. 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