Watch: Craig Sager Talks Hope, Fulfillment in Last Interview

MARIETTA, GA -- As a sports reporter for the Turner News Network, Craig Sager covered champions. But in the end, it was he who was the champion.

Sager was memorialized this week by friends, family and hundreds of admirers at Marietta's Mount Bethel United Methodist Church. He died Dec. 15 after a prolonged battle with cancer.

Days before he died, the man known for the colorful suits on the NBA sidelines gave his last interview to "CBS Sunday Morning." In it, he extolled the virtues of living life to the full and embracing the inevitability of the human condition.

Read more: Hundreds pack Marietta church to memorialize Craig Sager

Speaking to correspondent Jim Axelrod, Sager said that rather than feel sorry for himself, his sickness has allowed him to became a beacon of hope for people.

“The responses that I’ve gotten where people say, ‘I’ve been a negative person my whole life, and you’ve changed my life,” he said.

“Nobody knows how long they have left. There are no guarantees. And for me, when they tell you that you have a couple weeks to live, or a couple months… well, you have to determine how you’re going to do that.”

The day before he died, he celebrated his 14th wedding anniversary with his wife Stacy. “Every day is just a canvas waiting to be painted. It’s how you live that day, and that goes for everybody, not just me.”

Sager was on hand for some of professional sports' biggest moments, including Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's homerun record in 1974, and Michael Jordan's last-second shot over Cleveland's Craig Ehlo in 1989.

Sager leaves behind his wife Stacy and five children. He was 65.

Image via CBS/Youtube