Joe Sakic may be the nicest professional athlete in the world. He is certainly the nicest one I have met. I pretty much shook his hand and said 'hi', so I am basing this on limited experience, but no one reads this blog, so I'll go ahead and say make the claim as if I know what I am talking about. Joe Sakic is a really nice guy.
I attended a charity event this past weekend that featured most if not all the Avs. I only really got a chance to observe a few of them and only talked very briefly to a couple of them because I was pretty busy working the silent auction. http://www.auctionautomations.com
I found myself feeling a little sorry for Joe. In Denver, he is THE man. If you are a hockey fan AT ALL, Joe is your hero. As soon as he walked in, tons of people mobbed him for pictures and autographs and just to say they met Super Joe. I am not sure he was able to go the the bathroom there were so many people around him all the time. I doubt there are many places he can go where he is able to get away from people. And I get the feeling he never says 'no' or 'leave me alone'. He just always handles himself as a fan would want him to.
While at the silent auction, a lady showed me a photo of Joe with a beautiful 8 month old girl in childrens' hospital. Joe was holding the girl while wearing a santa hat and with a big smile on his face. The lady told me the picture was taken on the 23rd of December and her daughter passed away on the 27th. The story made me feel sad for this poor woman. It also reenforced my suspicion that Sakic is a very nice guy... Much nicer than I have ever been. The woman REALLY wanted to win a signed Sakic jersey in the auction. This jersey went for over 1,200, and the lady did not win it. Sort of sad, but at she should feel good that she helped drive up the price for a chidrens charity.
Joe was also nice enough to let us take a picture with him for our website. I got to say hi and shake his hand. He even came by once when we were too busy for him and he came back when things were settled down. I did not expect him to do that. I just think it was really nice of him.
So anyway, that is my limited experience with Joe Sakic. Of course I watch him play hockey a lot and think he is one of the goal scorers I have ever seen. (because he is). For such nice guy, Joe Sakic has a wicked wrist shot. He is still one of the best in the league and certainly the best on the Avs. But I guess my main point is that I don't think I would want to trade places with him or any other top pro athlete. The money would be great and it would be nice to play a game for a living and be recognized as great. But it really seems that all the fans all the time would get old quick. Especially if you are one of those nice guys who will not say 'no' to your fans.
I would like to know how Joe gets such force with his wrist shot, though.
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