John Wall missed preseason game to honor young friend at cancer fundraiser

John Wall had a better place to be on Saturday night than a preseason game against the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Washington Wizards point guard attended a fundraising event for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society called Light the Night Walk in honor of his young friend Damiyah Telemaque-Nelson, who passed away last winter.

Wall sponsored Miyah's family and friends for the event, and had made a five-figure donation toward non-Hodgkin lymphoma research, but did not expect to be able to attend because of the Wizards schedule, according to The Washington Post's Jorge Castillo.

Coach Randy Wittman told the media after the Wizards' victory over the Bucks on Saturday that he gave Wall the night off to attend the event.

"He still has that personal relationship with the family of Miyah, who passed," Wittman explained. "This is a back-to-back. I wasn't going to play him anyway. And so, hey, if we got players that are committed to that kind of stuff, I don't have a problem sending a guy back to do that in the preseason. So I give John a lot of credit. He wanted to be there with her mother and he had the opportunity to do that."

Miyah died on Dec. 8, 2014, a few weeks before her sixth birthday. Wall led Washington to a double-overtime victory over the Boston Celtics that night, giving an emotional postgame interview.