Warren Lincoln lifts Division 2 basketball state championship trophy
Warren Lincoln repeated as Division 2 state champions with a fourth-quarter comeback powered by Markus and Moses Blackwell.
A FaceTime call on New Year’s Day 2025 quickly changed the immediate future of Lindsey Hunter’s life.
On Jan. 1, Hunter, an NBA champion with the beloved 2003-04 Detroit Pistons, had a call set up to speak with Griffin Gullekson, a teenage basketball player from Sparta with cancer, through The Lindsey Hunter Foundation. The foundation’s mission is “dedicated to turning pain into purpose for disadvantaged youth and children affected by cancer” through basketball.
The call led to a tight bond between Hunter and Griffin, which eventually morphed into Hunter interviewing for and accepting the varsity basketball coaching position at Sparta High School, just north of Grand Rapids, this summer.
“We jumped on a FaceTime with him and when you actually saw the things he was going through in his face and his body,” Hunter, who played 12 seasons for the Pistons and also won the 2001-02 title with the Los Angeles Lakers, said. “And you see the emotions from his father, it really touched us. It touched us big time. That really sparked the beginning of us wanting to do a lot with our foundation as far as helping kids.”
Griffin, a rising junior at Sparta, went to the doctor in early September 2024 after his parents noticed he wasn’t feeling the best coming off his summer basketball session. After doctors ran a series of labs, they instructed the Gulleksons to take Griffin to the hospital. On Sept. 11, he was diagnosed with cancer.
By 4 a.m. on Sept. 12, Griffin’s doctors had him scheduled for surgery and blood transfusions, with chemotherapy treatment scheduled to start that same week. In the blink of an eye, his life transformed from thinking all day, every day about basketball to thinking through his array of treatments to quell the life-threatening condition.
Griffin had 12 chemotherapy sessions scheduled through March, once every fortnight. At 6 feet 2, he dropped from 170 pounds to 125 while the treatment zapped his energy.
Undeterred, Griffin was set on suiting up for Sparta during the 2024-25 season.
“Quite literally, on the second day of his treatments, he asked about basketball,” Griffin’s father, Jeff, said. “‘What about basketball?'”
Doctors told Griffin he would not be able to play. However, he eventually got clearance to suit up for Sparta’s junior varsity team.
Griffin played through November before the effects of chemotherapy became too much for him to keep trying to play.
While he played, he wore a homemade cover over the open port inserted into his chest for his chemotherapy. His family cut a tennis ball in half and inserted it inside a baseball pitcher’s sleeve. He wore this under his jersey to protect the port from any direct shots.
Griffin’s oncology doctors believe he became the first player in west Michigan to play high school basketball with a surgically-placed port in his chest.
“They didn’t have a piece of medical equipment that’s designed to protect the port,” Jeff said. “Our family, we had to create one.”
A former college teammate of Jeff’s helped him get in contact with Hunter to speak with Griffin during his treatment. The phone call on New Year’s Day led to Hunter and his son Caleb, the president of Hunter’s foundation, to go to Sparta to meet with him.
“Lindsey and his son Caleb pretty much adopted Griffin and started coming over to Sparta,” Jeff said. “They came to a J.V. open gym for him, met with all the coaches, the administration and ran an open gym.”
Wanting to expand the outreach of the foundation, Hunter and his son went to Griffin with an offer of starting an AAU team in his area, which included other kids who were directly impacted by cancer.
“He just wanted to play basketball and that’s what he told his dad, his family and all the doctors,” said Caleb Hunter. “We wanted to do something special, so through the foundation, we set up an AAU team.”
Shortly after setting up the AAU team, the coaching job at Sparta opened following the retirement of coach Scott Berry. Lindsey applied, and the school announced his hiring in early July.
Hunter coached as an assistant with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns after his playing days ended in 2010, and served as the head coach at Mississippi Valley State from 2019-22, with a 7-75 record.
“It’s a collection of events that has turned into something, hopefully, that’s going to become pretty special for us,” Sparta superintendent Joel Stoner said.
For Hunter, it was an opportunity to continue to give back through coaching, which he believes is his calling.
“I look at that as just something I love to do,” Hunter said. “I love to teach kids. I love to touch lives. I love to help people prepare for their future. It’s not just about basketball but it’s through basketball. I think basketball is a microcosm of life.”
In March, doctors told Griffin he was in remission. He has had routine check-ups with doctors throughout the summer, but remains healthy. He has participated in summer basketball, adding weight back on. He expects to be ready when Sparta’s varsity practice starts in November.
“It was about a two-minute hug and it was just pure relief,” Jeff said.
Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com; Follow Jared on X or Bluesky.