ESPYs to honor former college basketball player Lauren Hill

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Wednesday, July 15, 2015
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LOS ANGELES, CA -- Lauren Hill will be honored at the ESPY Awards.

Hill inspired people with her fight against brain cancer and raised over $1.5 million for cancer research before she died April 10. Her life will be celebrated in a special presentation at the ESPYs on Wednesday night. The former Division III women's basketball player just wanted to play one game in college.

The NCAA agreed to let Hill's team, Mount St. Joseph, move up its opening game against Hiram College by two weeks because her condition was deteriorating. Xavier University offered its 10,000-seat arena so more people could attend. Tickets sold out in less than an hour.

She ended up playing in four games and made five layups. LeBron James sent her gifts and tweeted how much of an inspiration she was.

Members of Hill's family will be in attendance for the awards ceremony. There was some backlash when ESPN decided to honor Caitlyn Jenner with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, with many thinking Hill was more deserving.

Hill's mother told USA Today that she wanted to make it clear to Jenner that her family had nothing to do with the criticism.

"I don't think (Lauren) would have had a strong opinion on (the award) either way, to be honest," Lisa Hill said. "She was pretty down-to-earth. She respected (people from) all walks of life and people who were different. She would have never been judgmental or harsh or anything like that. That's just not who she was."