The Minnesota Timberwolves announced Tuesday that coach Flip Saunders has a “treatable and curable form of cancer” and will continue with his duties.
The team’s release said Saunders, also the team’s president of basketball operations, has been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and is undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
The release said the initial diagnosis came eight weeks ago during an examination by Timberwolves doctor Sheldon Burns and Saunders started treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
“I am taking it step by step and day by day to understand how to best manage this process,” said Saunders in a statement. “I want to thank Dr. Burns as well as my medical team at Mayo Clinic for their hard work in diagnosing my situation and creating a plan to help me achieve a cancer-free outcome. I am attacking this with the same passion I do everything in my life, knowing this is a serious issue. I also know that God has prepared me to fight this battle.”
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, part of the immune system, according to the Mayo Clinic website. Cells in the lymphatic system grow abnormally in Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and may spread beyond the lymphatic system. As the cancer progresses, it compromises the body’s ability to fight infection.
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is one of two common cancers of the lymphatic system, the other being non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is far more common.
Advances in diagnosis and treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma has given people the chance for a full recovery, according to the Mayo website.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said he continues to talk with Saunders almost daily.
“I’ve been aware of it since he has been aware of it,” Taylor said. “He [told me], ‘This is some news I got and I want you to know.’ He’s upbeat and confident, as he should be.”
Taylor said he doesn’t anticipate any changes to the team’s coaching and basketball operations.
“I don’t think it will impact him at all,” Taylor said. “We can work around his schedule.”
Reached in Mexico where he is attending a wedding, Wolves veteran guard Kevin Martin said he spoke with Saunders the other day about the diagnosis, before Tuesday’s announcement.
“He sounded real upbeat about the whole situation,” Martin said. “I think anytime that happens to somebody, it’s an unfortunate situation. Something like this goes beyond basketball, that’s real life. We all take care of each other. We’re a family and this is a time to come together like a family.”
Saunders, entering the second year of his second stint as the Timberwolves head coach, has been checking in with the team’s returning players over the last several weeks about their summer training.
“It hasn’t been affecting him at all this month,” Martin said. “He has been sending us texts, what he wants from us. He’s upbeat about the coming season.”
Former Denver coach George Karl continued to coach the Nuggets while fighting throat cancer five years ago. Martin said he’s never been on a team that has faced such a situation, but likened Saunders’ cancer diagnosis to those months during the 2012-13 season when then-Wolves coach Rick Adelman and his wife Mary Kay sought answers about her seizures.
“We experienced that, we felt his pain,” Martin said. “It brings a team closer together.”
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