SPORTS CENTER: My Wish

Today I'm departing from the traditional forms of sport to advise my readers to watch the late-night edition of SportsCenter. Most of ya'll probably do so anyway. But tonight's episode will be special because it will show the final edition of the 2 week-long My Wish series. And that's a great choice for today's one to watch.

I've been fortunate to have seen the majority of the My Wish stories. Each segment has featured a child fighting serious illness spend the day with his/her favorite sports hero courtesy of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Even the most cynical viewer would concede how moving these stories have been. Some of the athletes who have demonstrated big hearts on and off the field are Derek Jeter, Wayne Gretzky, and Donovan McNabb.

My favorite moments from the series include: Roger Clemens giving a pitching lesson to a youngster where he actually asked the cameras to turn away so as not to reveal some of the tricks of his hall-of-fame career that he was sharing with the boy and Tracy McGrady playing a basketball video game against a child who competed in the game as the computer character Tracy McGrady.

But nobody granted a better wish than Kobe Bryant. After having some fun at a Dave and Busters, the Laker star took his young guest to the basketball court for some 1-on-1. Watching the sincere joy Kobe himself derived from playing a game of horse with that special child who wishes to meet him, he's instantly gone from heel to hero for me too.

There are plenty of problems with sports. And there are plenty of problems playing sports. But hopefully there's also stuff like this going on behind the scenes when the cameras aren't rolling. Our sports heroes have such power. It's good to know they can still use it for more than homeruns and slam dunks.

So that's what I'll be watching. And for our photo today, as if Kobe needed another reason to smile, here's the beautiful Vanessa Bryant.