In honor of dad
At age 9, Jazz center Kosta Koufos lost his father to cancer.
By Ross Siler
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 06/07/2009
Canton, Ohio ? One of those "Jazz Fans Parking Only" signs hangs on the door, part of a collection of towels, pennants and mugs direct from the team store at EnergySolutions Arena to the guidance counselor's office at GlenOak High.
More than just a proud mother, Kathy Koufos wants to deliver a message to the aspiring doctors, the future Broadway performers, even the kid who came into her office recently declaring he wanted to be a professional wrestler.
"Whatever you want to be, you can," Kathy said. "Kids have to have dreams and they have to be passionate about something. I feel very strongly about this. All of us have to be passionate about what it is that we want to do."
Her youngest son, Kosta, is living his dream at all of 20 years old, having finished his rookie season with the Jazz. But he didn't reach the NBA simply because he was blessed to be 7 feet tall, even if he did pray for height when he was younger.
Instead, Kosta poured himself into basketball with a dedication like few others following the death of his father when Kosta was 9. A decade later, Alex Koufos' fate still raises questions about faith and fairness for those who knew the highly regarded hematologist/oncologist.
After years spent at hospitals from Columbus, Ohio, to Cincinnati to Montreal, Alex came home to work at Akron Children's Hospital only to be given a death sentence with a rare form of bile duct cancer that ultimately took his life in April 1998.
"As a priest, when you hear these things, it stops you in your tracks and you say, 'How could this be, Lord?' " the Rev. Dan Rogich said. "'How could this be that someone who gives their life to fight this disease ends up succumbing to it?'"
Kosta remembers playing catch with his father in the backyard growing up and setting up model train sets after Alex got sick. He was too young to understand everything that was happening and now can only wonder what his dad would think of his NBA life.
"I think he would've been proud," Kosta said. "At the same time, too, he would've told me to stay focused and keep working hard. My dad was a very good doctor and he worked hard in what he did and he just believed in doing the best job."
The void Alex left had to be filled by Kathy, who got a crash course in how to raise a basketball star, as well as Rogich, a former Division II basketball player at Franciscan University, who became a mentor to Kosta at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Canton.
"Believe or not, there's a lot of tears just watching him, because he deserves it, really," Rogich said. "We're proud of him. We're proud of his accomplishments. He really worked hard for this. He's one of our kids, he's just one of our kids. We just feel so close."
