by Micah Hart

Normally, the NBA Draft lottery is useful for only one interesting piece of information; namely, who gets the top pick.

That wasn’t the case this year, as everyone in America fell in love with Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert‘s 14-year old son Nick, who represented the Cavs at the lottery drawing.

Nick Gilbert, who suffers from a nerve disorder that can cause tumors to grow in his body at any time, won the room over (and the nation) during the evening, when he answered ESPN’s question about how he feels about his father calling him his hero, saying, “What’s not to like?”

The phrase became an instant hit, repeated several times over during the course of the night’s events, which oh-by-the-way culminated in the Cavaliers hitting the jackpot, moving up from the eight spot (originally the Clippers’ pick, which they acquired as part of the Baron Davis-Mo Williams swap at the trade deadline) to No. 1 in the Draft pecking order.

T-shirt maker Fresh Brewed Tees capitalized on the growing popularity of Nick’s catch-phrase, introducing a t-shirt (right) to commemorate the occasion and donating five dollars of every one sold to support The Children’s Tumor Foundation, for which Nick is an ambassador. As of this posting, the shirts have already raised nearly $40,000 dollars for the organization.

Well done everyone, all around.

UPDATE: The t-shirt has been a big hit, but the $40,000 figure is actually how much the campaign for the CTF has raised in total, not simply from sales of the shirt (which, by the way, Gilbert the father has said he will match dollar-for dollar). It’s not too late to donate to the cause either, as they have extended the drive through this coming Friday, May 27.

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