{"id":42415,"date":"2025-08-16T16:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theme-dev.cmsmasters.net\/church-main\/discovering-the-power-of-waiting\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T01:46:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T08:46:38","slug":"spike-lee-praises-sports-heroes-magic-johnson-doc-gooden-mike-tyson-at-cancer-benefit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/community-news\/spike-lee-praises-sports-heroes-magic-johnson-doc-gooden-mike-tyson-at-cancer-benefit\/","title":{"rendered":"Spike Lee Praises Sports Heroes Magic Johnson, Doc Gooden, Mike Tyson at Cancer Benefit"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u201cTwenty-five years ago, I made a promise to my late father that my brother and I would try to make a difference in our community \u2014 not through words, but through actions,\u201d said David Pump when he took the stage at the Beverly Hilton on Aug. 15.<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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David, along with his brother Dana Pump, founded the Harold and Carole Pump Foundation (HCPF) to raise funds and awareness for cancer treatment after losing his father to cancer in 2000 and his mother in 2012.<\/p>

\u201cTonight, my heart is full,\u201d David Pump added. \u201cWe\u2019ve taken so many steps to get here, and both Dana and I, along with our family, are very appreciative of everyone here to support us.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry and Mike Tyson\nCredit: Getty Images\n<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Those supporters included an impressive array of guests from the entertainment and sports worlds, including Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Tyson, Shaquille O\u2019Neal, Sammy Sosa, Darryl Strawberry, Steve Garvey, Storm Reid, Sugar Ray Leonard, Johnny Gill, Jon Lovitz, Judge Mathis, Mario Lopez, Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good.<\/p>

After an extensive silent auction with lots of sports memorabilia, a sparkly Robin Thicke kicked off the program and got guests dancing stage-side to a few of his hits like \u201cLost Without U\u201d and \u201cBlurred Lines.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Janet Jones, Jon Lovitz and Wayne Gretzky\nCredit: Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Magic Johnson\u00a0introduced Dana and David Pump, whose foundation has raised more than $10.5 million for the Carole Pump Women\u2019s Center, the Harold and Carole Pump Department of Radiation Oncology, the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Cancer Center at Northridge Hospital Medical Center and other nonprofit community charities.<\/p>

\u201cOnly those two guys could bring everyone together,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThat says a lot about both of them, to carry on their parents\u2019 legacy. \u2026 You would never think these two red-headed dudes would be this generous but also mindful, especially in a time when it\u2019s all about \u2018me.\u2019 And they\u2019re saying, it\u2019s not about me; it\u2019s about my parents. So we should clap for that.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Marcellus Wiley, Byron Scott, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Terrell Owens\nCredit: Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Johnson also called out Oscar Robertson. \u201cThat\u2019s who I wanted to model myself after,\u201d he said. \u201cI just wanted to be a basketball player until I saw him. He not only dominated on the court, but also in business, so that\u2019s how I got my whole thought process of being a businessman.\u201d<\/p>

The night\u00a0\u2014 which raised more than $2.8 million in support of the foundation\u2019s mission to advance cancer treatment and fund critical programs \u2014\u00a0also honored\u00a0Aaron Donald, Barry Bonds, Spike Lee and Wayne Gretzky with the Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as Reggie McKnight and R.J. Melman with the Humanitarian Award.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Sammy Sosa\nCredit: Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Lee recalled growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a kid, and then later on in life, you get to meet your heroes, it\u2019s a big moment,\u201d Lee said. \u201cSo many of you guys, I watched you. \u2026 One of my heroes in Brooklyn, Mike Tyson\u2019s in house. And I got Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry in the house! I was in the last row in Shea Stadium and the ball rolled through Buckner\u2019s legs.\u201d<\/p>

Lee continued, \u201cMagic has always been a friend, and he was one individual that gave me money to finish\u00a0Malcolm X<\/em>\u00a0when the studio did not want\u00a0Malcolm X<\/em>\u00a0to be the length it needed to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Cedric the Entertainer, J. B. Smoove, honoree Spike Lee and Greg Mathis\nCredit: Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cI became a filmmaker because my mother loved movies,\u201d Lee confessed. \u201cMy father hated Hollywood, so since I was an only child, she took me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m here because of my mother,\u00a0and my mother died of liver cancer when I was a sophomore of Morehouse college,\u201d he said, describing the emotional experience of leaving college upon her being taken ill and how he received the news she\u2019d passed from his aunt over the phone, once he\u2019d returned.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Spike Lee, who lost his mother to liver cancer\nCredit: Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cOften, if you\u2019re lucky, your parents expose you to stuff you might not be exposed to before,\u201d Lee said. \u201cSo I\u2019m honored to be here tonight [to support] the great things the Pump brothers have done with their foundation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Credit to LAMAG.com – article by Jasmin Rosemberg<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Harold and Carole Pump Foundation\u2019s 25th anniversary dinner raised more than $2.8 million and united some of the sports world\u2019s biggest legends<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42415"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52876,"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42415\/revisions\/52876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepumpfoundation.org\/newsite26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}