As the headlines of the sports sections around the country focus on Barry Bonds' chase for the AMERICAN home run record (Japanese baseball fans do not need to ask why the word "American" is in caps!), it is only natural for people to have a sour feeling towards professional sports. After all, Bonds has been cast, rightly or wrongly, as the epitome of the selfish athlete, and there are many who do not want to see Hank Aaron's record fall.

And so, it is even more stunning, more beautiful when we see an athlete who exemplifies anything other than the selfish athlete (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-jazz-fisher&prov=ap&type=lgns). The latest on Yahoo! Sports is that the Utah Jazz agreed to release point guard Derek Fisher on his request so that he could be with his cancer stricken daughter as he and his wife seek treatment for her condition.

While he's not said whether or not he's officially retiring, the 33 year old Fisher is placing his family over his career, something all too many Americans don't do, even when they're NOT sports stars.

My prayers are certainly with Derek Fisher and his family, even though I don't know any of them and have never met them. Derek Fisher is proving definitively that he is the kind of role model people can and should emulate. Only God knows what is in store for their family, but one thing is for certain: that little girl definitely has a man she can call "daddy".