BLAIR COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) — The Hollidaysburg-based Sideline Cancer basketball team has donated over $300,000 to pancreatic cancer research, given over $10,000 to patients directly, and were The Basketball Tournament runners up in 2020.
The latest thing they're adding to their resume -- doesn't have to do with basketball or cancer -- it's helping to save someone from a war-torn country.
Here's how it happened.
Back in 2020, Sideline Cancer competed for a chance to win $1,000,000 in TBT Tournament on ESPN.
Professional basketball player Maurice Creek, known as Mo, shot the winning three pointer sending them to the championships.
"People from not just our area, but across the United States, latched onto the 'I Can' attitude and 'Believe Always' spirit that Sideline Cancer exhibits," said Jordan Griffith with the team.
The following year, Sideline Cancer held a basketball clinic at home in Hollidaysburg to expose more people to their mission.
They, of course, invited Mo.
"He agreed to drive up from Washington D.C. -- which is something that he didn't need to do -- but he chose to do it, because he believes in our mission and trying to give back," Jordan told 6 News.
Erik and Nik Nordberg, a father/son basketball loving duo from the Gettysburg area, were there too.
They almost didn't make it.
"I said to my son, 'Hey man, I don't know, what do you think, should we go?' He's like, 'Yeah dad, I think we should go.'" Erik told 6 News.
They decided to make the trip out to Blair County, and in hindsight, they're glad they did.
"I said, 'You never know who you're going to meet and you never know what's going to happen, so, let's go for it,'" he continued.
That's where the Nordbergs were introduced to Mo Creek.
"Mo came over, and I said, 'Hey Mr. Creek, Maurice, would you just shake my son's hand. I just want to introduce you guys. We just wanted to meet you.' That's how it started, really," Erik said.
"We were amazed because Mo was making half court shots like they were free throws. It was just a neat experience. We were watching him work with kids, and I thought, this guy is a pro athlete, and he's talking to these kids like he's a brother, a friend, like a dad even to some of the younger kids," he continued.
Then, they went their separate ways, or so they thought.
Following the clinic, Erik formed an AAU basketball team representing sideline cancer.
Mo went back to playing professional basketball overseas, most recently, for the MBC Mykolaiv Team in Ukraine.
You could call it bad timing, because Mo was there when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Erik caught wind that Mo was there.
"Whenever the Russians invaded, I said, 'Hey, Mo's out right?' They said, 'No, he's still there.' I said, 'Then we got a problem.' That's when I started working on it," Erik told 6 News.
In addition to being a basketball coach, Erik is also a 23-year military veteran, serving as an Army Special Forces Officer and Lieutenant Colonel.
"We didn't have days to talk to people about what to do. It had to be done. It had to be done right away," Erik said.
Little did he know he had a new operation: "Operation Bring Mo Home."
"My wife was like, 'Are you coming to bed?' This is a decision point. I said, 'No I'm not. I'm going to get this guy,'" Erik said.
This is when they realized it was meant to be that they met.
"It was kind of funny that we do this extraction with Mo, because a lot of my career I spent working and thinking about Russia and Eastern Europe, and how to do operations there," Erik said.
He started drafting escape plans.
"I'm sitting in my basement. I have a screen that has a split screen. It's got four cameras and a live situation map that's updating where the Russians are and what's happening on the ground."
That's how Erik could guide Mo step by step over the phone.
"I'm looking at his whole route like, 'Hey, there's a bridge out.' I texted him, 'Hey, somebody just bombed this road, I just wanted to let you know. The Russians are here. Hopefully you guys are going around the city.' We just stayed in contact."
Erik had many sleepless days and nights.
"Each night, I would literally try to lay down, and my phone would ring, and it would be Romania, or it would be Mo, or it would be somebody in Ukraine."
Erik served as Mo's catalyst to the outside world and avenue for safety.
"I figured that I have to establish a standard routine for Mo every single day. One hour before sun up, he wakes up, he puts on all of his clothes, he eats a big breakfast, he drinks a lot of water, and his bags are packed."
Erik was in constant communication with 10 people -- that he had met throughout his time in the military -- throughout Eastern Europe.
"Mo is sending me google updates with his pin. He's dropping a pin at his location. I'm talking to one of our support leaders in Romania. We have the bus driver dropping a pin where he is. We're literally trying to put all of these people together at the same location," Erik said.
While Erik developed countless escape plans, he also had multiple failed attempts to get Mo out of the country.
He says they would frequently be stopped by Russians or Ukrainians along the way.
Erik ultimately guided Mo out of Ukraine from thousands of miles away by cell phone.
"I would say, 'Okay, this is what we got first. You're going to get in a vehicle, you're going to get in that vehicle, you're going to drive to the border, it's four hours. We're going to talk all the way. When you get to the border, we're going to sit down and talk again.'"
Erik used his knowledge from his time in the military, where he often developed hostage rescue plans.
"You have to learn two phrases in Russian and two phrases in Ukrainian. The phrase is 'don't shoot' and 'I am an American.' you have to memorize both of those in those two languages," Erik told Mo.
Mo tweeted that he "never felt so hopeless in his life."
"It's at that point that he started out sending tweets on Sunday morning, like, I don't think I'm ever getting out of here." Jordan told 6 News.
Erik said he tried to keep Mo motivated the whole time, taking the escape step by step.
"If I would have told him, 'Mo, it is 14 hours from city to city,' I don't know that he would have gone. If I would have told him, 'Hey, you're going to spend 9 hours just waiting at the border crossing point in freezing temperatures,' I don't know if he would have gone," Erik said.
Mo finally got to the Romanian border where he had to stand in freezing cold temperatures for hours while waiting in line.
"He's cold, he's freezing. He's like, 'I think people are freezing to death out here.' He didn't have any gloves. I said, 'Look, you might have to go in your bag and get socks and put them on your hands. You might have to do that. You might have to take everything you've got and put it on your body. But you are alive.'"
Then Mo set out on his next mission: to get home.
Exactly one week after Russia invaded Ukraine, Mo landed at Dulles International Airport and fell into the loving embrace of his mother.
"It was mission complete. I said I wasn't going to sleep until Mo came home. I was relieved that we got him home, and relieved that we did it quick," Erik said.
"To see him come through those doors, it was an amazing sight. All of us were happy to see him, but of course we let mom lead the way, and let her have the first chance to hug her son," said Sideline Cancer coach Charlie Parker
"This whole family came together. Mo's family, the sideline cancer family, and me, my family was there. We were all part of it," Erik continued.
It was Sideline Cancer that put the puzzle pieces together.
"In 2020, if Mo never hits that shot in the bubble, we don't hold that Sideline Cancer day, Mo never meets the Nordbergs, and Mo is still in the Ukraine right now," Jordan told 6 News.
"One free basketball clinic could end up saving somebody from a war-torn country. It's crazy to think that that shot might have actually saved his life. We didn't realize what the bigger play was at hand, and that was eventually going to be getting Mo Creek out of the Ukraine," he continued.
Cathy Griffith with Sideline Cancer says it was a ripple effect.
"The simplest random act of kindness has a ripple on a pond, that becomes and ocean full of hope and of love," she told 6 News
The same attitude they use to overcome pancreatic cancer is the same motivation that got Mo Creek out of Ukraine.
"In our darkest, darkest moment, the most important thing is to never give up, is to have an 'I can attitude, and a 'believe always' spirit, that we all can be vessels to change the world," Cathy said.
And the mission didn't even have to do with basketball or cancer.
"It's not necessarily Sideline Cancer that did it, but it's the power of our message that did it. It brings good people together. That, more than anything, means the world to us: that we could be a little piece to this puzzle of getting Mo Creek out of Ukraine and out of a war-torn country into safety," Jordan said.
"It's about collaboration, working together, in the most difficult of situations there would be, and never giving up, and believing always," Cathy said.
Erik says other families in Ukraine have been reaching out to him after they heard Mo's story to help them escape.
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