HOUSTON -- The chemotherapy has diminished Craig Sagers once-lustrous chestnut hair to a few unruly strands, and on this day of hope, a simple green T-shirt and blue shorts adorn the man known by millions for his ostentatious wardrobe and easy rapport with the NBAs elite.He methodically extended a long, skinny arm to an IV pole holding the stem cells he is counting on to save his life. There was silence as he cradled the tube, watching the crimson liquid drip, drip, drip in a perfect cadence into the cannula feeding it into his cancer-stricken body.TNTs beloved basketball broadcaster received a rare third bone marrow transplant on Wednesday as an aggressive form of leukemia continues to take its toll. Sager, 65, has battled acute myeloid leukemia since 2014 and announced in March that he was no longer in remission.Sager knows the odds are against him. Yet, he is unfazed.I like to gamble, he told The Associated Press. I like to bet on horses, I like to bet on dogs. I like to bet on a lot of things. Ive bet on a lot of things with a lot higher odds than this.Two other times, Sager received a bone marrow transplant with stem cells, and in both instances, it put him into remission for several months. His son, Craig Sager II, was the donor then. This time, the anonymous 20-year-old donor was considered a perfect match.Sager has been hospitalized for a month and has another monthlong stay ahead. He hasnt thought a lot about the man whose bone marrow could change everything for him. But when he learned of the donors age, he expressed a possibly only half-serious concern.My only thing was, I was afraid that when he signed up to be the donor, he may have been in some drunk fraternity house, trying to impress his date, Sager said with a smile. And they call him up the next day and say, Want to come down to the hospital? and hes like, What?His fears turned out to be unfounded.He came through, Sager said.It is the latest of close to 100 procedures Sager has endured in his well-publicized fight, and it was performed at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Sager began the transplant at about 110 a.m. CT, and it wasnt complete until more than 10 hours later.Craig Sager II tweeted Wednesday as his father was undergoing the procedure.Dr. Muzaffar Qazilbash, Sagers stem cell transplantation physician, researched thousands of such transplants at MD Anderson over the past 15 years to illustrate just how uncommon Sagers procedure was.Its less than 1 percent of the total number of transplants, Qazilbash said. Its very rare to have three transplants.As Sager said moments after the process began, OK, third times the charm.Sager, who has worked for TNT for more than three decades, calls himself coachable and said he is open to trying anything doctors believe might help.Ive had every chemo in the alphabet, most of them more than once, he said. Some of them that arent even in the alphabet, theyre just numbers -- clinical trials. But I bet if you added all those up, it would have to be like 60- or 70-something. Ive had 23 bone marrow aspirations. Having one isnt fun, and Ive had 23. So thats been tough.Despite the rigors of treatment and how it can ravage his body, he has never thought about giving up. In fact, he gets angry when he meets other patients who say theyve grown weary of fighting.Man, life is t beautiful, t wonderful, theres just t many things, he said. Its not just you. Its your family and kids and all. Fight. Fight until the end. Fight as hard as you can.With his radiant smile and TV-perfect persona, it takes time to peel back the layers of positivity and catch a glimpse of how hard that fight can be.His attitude is [that] nobody wants to hear it, said Stacy Sager, his wife, full-time caregiver and No. 1 fan. And so it makes you reflect on yourself and the things that you say when youre complaining about little things in life and trivial things, and it just puts things in perspective.But there are times, often as night creeps into early morning, where it all becomes t much. No medication can help.Ive never had any of those days where Ive actually said, Why me or I cant do it, he said. But Ill have some dark nights where Ill be here by myself and maybe getting some medicine thats making me jump around like a rabbit. And Im in pain and Ive got chills and Ive got fever and Ive got everything mixed into one and Im throwing up and have diarrhea ... and Ill just say, Stacy, I need you. I need you.And shell come to me and just hold me, and it just makes it better.A few days before his transplant, Stacy came down with a bad cold and doctors sent her home, fearful she would transmit her illness to her husband. Hall of Famer and TNT colleague Charles Barkley heard she couldnt be there for a couple of days and hopped on a plane from Phoenix.The problem was that Barkley had hip replacement surgery less than a month ago and wasnt cleared to travel. He said his doctor was livid when he learned Barkley had defied orders and flown halfway across the country. Barkley informed the doctor that it was an emergency -- although it was hard to know who was there for whom.Craig Sager is one of the most interesting people Ive ever met, Barkley said. We go to see Sager to cheer him up, and by the time you leave, youre like, Is anything wrong with him? He has the most positive attitude.When you go to try and cheer him up, his attitude is so upbeat, he cheers you up.Sager has found inspiration in a little girl who lost her fight with cancer before her ninth birthday. He befriended Lacey Holsworth and her family while working on a story about her illness and remained friends with her parents after she died in April 2014. Holsworth had cheered on the Michigan State basketball team and had a close friendship with star player?Adreian Payne.Last weekend, her parents visited Sager in his Houston hospital rm. They left him with a more tangible reminder of her bravery.They brought me little Laceys bts that she used to always wear to games and a picture of her wearing them, Sager said, clutching the high-top cheetah ftwear accessorized with laces made from silk ribbons. That little girl was so amazing. Fought for all of those years, was always positive, always cheerful, always brought other peoples spirits up. So if Im laying here feeling bad, I just think about Lacey, and it puts everything in perspective.Sager also is bolstered by his drive to be back on the sideline for the NBA season. He doesnt expect to have recovered from Wednesdays transplant in time for the season opener Oct. 25 but aims to return by early November for more gentle sparring with the likes of?San Antonio Spurs?coach Gregg?Popovich.It would be a victory not just for him, but for all the people his fight has inspired.It means that youre surviving and youre winning, he said. That youre knocking down obstacles and clearing hurdles that are put in front of you and youre doing them with flying colors.On Wednesday, five colorful ballns were tied to one side of his hospital bed. Several had birthday greetings and two read: Happy birthday, its your big day.Festive, yes. But Sager was born in June.When you get stem cells, they say its your new birthday, Stacy explained. So this is his fourth birthday.Sager tried to downplay the pageantry surrounding the event, saying it wasnt a big deal.That earned a sweet, yet stern, admonishment from his beloved wife.It is a big deal, she said. Its giving you life.The Associated Press contributed to this report. NFL Jerseys . LOUIS -- Attorneys for the St. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys . Darren Helm scored on Detroits sixth attempt in the shtout and then Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaws shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. http://www.cheapnfljerseyssupplywholesale.com/ . -- Arizona raced out to a big lead and did not back off, hitting the accelerator instead. Wholesale NFL Jerseys Authentic . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Ftball Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Cheap NFL Jerseys . In the response filed Wednesday to the complaint by 30-year-old Alexander Bradley, attorneys say the former University of Florida player is invoking his Fifth Amendment right that protects people from incriminating themselves. The NFLs sixth Sunday kicks off with nine early games, although the best matchups dont start until later in the afternn.The national audience will probably be most interested in the surprising Cowboys at Green Bay and the Falcons at Seattle, both 4:25 p.m. kickoffs.The early games feature Tom Bradys return to Foxborough, where the Patriots will face the Bengals. Other early games are Eagles at Washington, Pittsburgh at Miami, Jacksonville at Chicago, the Browns at Tennesseee, the Ravens at the Giants, the Rams in Detroit, Carolina at New Orleans and the 49ers in Buffalo, where Colin Kaepernick will get his first start.ddddddddddddThe other late-afternn game in Kansas City at the Raiders, while the Colts travel to Houston for the prime-time matchup.---Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL ' ' '