KANSAS CITY, Mo. – There are some things that I would never with upon anyone. Losing a family member is one of them.

Thursday morning Texas A&M guard Donald Sloan lost his mother in Texas. Thursday night Sloan helped lead his Aggie squad to a first round victory over Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament.

Some people might crucify him for leaving his family to go play something they consider as trivial as a basketball game. But those people are wrong.

In the grand scheme of things, when everything is all said and done, sports really don’t matter. As much as I love sports, I have to admit that. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important.

What makes sports so powerful, such a dominant part of culture around the world, is its ability to push all of the hardships, the more pressing matters, to the side, if only for a few hours. It can be an outlet, a chance to let some pent up emotion out and snatch a glimpse of the good side of life when everything else is going wrong.

Sloan didn’t play because he cared more about basketball than he did about his family. He came because the game gave him a way to wall off that sadness he was feeling and block it out for two hours.

The camaraderie built between team mates over the course of a season, or seasons, is something few who haven’t played can ever understand. They sweat together at 6 a.m. workouts. They sleep together on red-eye flights back after a tough loss. They joke together over pre-game meals. By the end of a season, a team is more than just a team – it’s a family. And family doesn’t let other family down.

If Sloan hadn’t come to the game, his team mates would have understood. Everyone grieves differently, and who would they be to tell him how to do it? But for Sloan, he couldn’t let down his brothers.

“The teammates embraced me really well when I came back and I felt like if I needed anything, they were there,” he said. “They’re there for me; I got to be there for them.”

If it was heartfelt that Sloan even played at all, the level he played at was inspiring.

He finished with 12 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, nearly a triple-double. Even more, he didn’t play well at all for most of the first half. The first play of the game, he was out of position. But he was somehow able to get himself going, and now has a chance to help carry his team even further.

I don’t know Donald Sloan, but he will be my biggest memory coming away from this tournament. I’ve seen him play once in person and listened to him answer questions for about five minutes. But even in that short time, I’ve developed a deep level of respect and admiration for the man. I don’t know if I could have done what he did, or done it so successfully.

For him to show up after two sleepless nights of horror, eyes bloodshot from crying, and carry his team the way he did is inspiring.

He didn’t have to play. He admitted it was a tough decision, which family to be with. But in the end, he was with both.

“I think I made the right decision,” Sloan said. “I think she would have wanted me to come up and play in this game for her.”

– Nick Paulson is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Minnetonka, Minn.