My Wish..

I am a firm believer that you don't do community service for the good press that you are going to get. If you ar doing it for the press, then you are doing it for the wrong reason.

Had a football coach who wanted to make sure that everybody knew he was sending the team to the local children's hospital. So, on one day in the preseason, he sends 50 players over. I told him that if he really wanted to have an impact, he should send five players over 10 different times during the season. He looked at me like I was stupid (but then again, he was just doing it for the press).

If the press comes, then great. But don't be an attention whore screaming "Look at me, look at me" every time you do something nice.

As for the ESPN stories, I saw the preview about a five-year old who wanted to meet his favorite player. All I could think is, what five-year old knows enough about sports to have a favorite player? It is probably his dad's favorite player.

 

I've actually seen most of these segments and, while exploitive, they are great for the kids and always stir my emotions up.
To be fair to the athletes, a lot of these guys do this kind of thing even when the cameras aren't around.
I know for a fact that Kobe Bryant (I think his was the first "My Wish" aired) and Dwyane Wade are very active in this sort of endeavor and each prefer not having the media notified. I'm not sure about the guys from the other sports.

Are these segments self-serving? Definitely, but as someone said earlier, as long as it puts a smile on a kid's face, it's all worth it.

 

I won't watch anything on ESPN anymore that has a piano track.