It’s probably appropriate to post this during March Madness season but it’s one of the most inspirational speeches I’ve ever heard. Everytime I hear Jim Valvano’s ESPY speech from 1993 it gives me chills. What he has to say goes way beyond basketball and I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s completely worth the 11 minutes.

For those of you who don’t know who Jimmy V is he was a head basketball coach in college, most notably for North Carolina State. He won a national championship for them in 1983 as a huge underdog. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1992 and with ESPN launched the Jimmy V Foundation (a great organization that we support and you should consider supporting) which helps to fund cancer research.

This speech was given at the first ever ESPY awards show (ESPN’s version of the Oscar’s) and he was the recipient of the Arthur Ashe award for courage. Sadly he died only about a month after the speech but his foundation and his legend are still very strong. Like I said it’s worth dedicating 11 minutes of your life to watching.

This speech was given 16 years ago and still has as much meaning and significance today as it did then; there probably aren’t many people reading this who haven’t been affected by cancer (it’s certainly affected both me and Jessica.) I know that right now foundations and non-profit organizations are hurting for donations and support so I urge you to do what you can to continue supporting some of the great organizations out there (either with your time or money.) I hope you enjoyed this video…especially if you haven’t seen it before.