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"Back then, I had no idea how serious it [my condition] was," Greg said. "Back then, I saw it as something you have to go through, to work hard through a huge obstacle. ... I never thought about what I couldn't do.

"And most important,'' he said, laughing, "I just wanted to beat my brothers one-on-one." And he did.

Even though he lacks fine motor control in his left arm, he dominated the backyard hoop until Tyler, then Ben, reached high school. At a muscular 6-foot-5, Greg liked to back people down in the post, dive for loose balls and be physical in the lane.

"Greg would win and talk so much smack every time he won, so it was always intense ... and no one took it easy on each other,'' Tyler, now 22, said laughing. "The next time we played, we'd try to take it to Greg, And if it got close, Greg was going to nail you, too. If it got close, we were going to nail Greg, the same way he'd nail us."

Sound familiar?

"Yeah,'' Tyler said, "I probably did get some of it [my style] from him."

When Greg got into games at Poplar Bluff High, he received standing ovations -- especially when he buried one of his right-handed hook shots. After all, doctors had told him he would never play contact sports.

"I don't think he ever thought about not playing basketball,'' said the boys' mom, Tami. "That's what the boys did -- they loved sports. ... He wasn't just a hero to his brothers, but to everyone."

The gregarious Greg found another way to stand out from the crowd, too -- on the track. He took up long-distance running as a sophomore, hated it, but persevered because "one of my core values is that once you start something, you finish it. Never quit." By the end of the season, he decided he would one day run a marathon.

Since then, he has finished nine -- three full and six half marathons. Tyler said that when he's at home, Greg runs 10 miles before he ever wakes up to shoot baskets or lift weights. "It's just like I'd done nothing in comparison," Tyler said.

But the inspiration goes both ways.

"He [Tyler] doesn't know this, but I've fed off him a lot when I'd be on my long runs and getting tired," Greg said. "I'd just picture Tyler in the gym, doing his shooting drills, on the track doing his running drills, or in the weight room. And I'd think, 'You know what? If Tyler were a marathoner, that's what he'd be doing.' "

An example and inspiration

These days, when Greg's not studying at Missouri to become a teacher and track coach, he can usually be found behind the bench at UNC or Mississippi State games -- easily his brothers' biggest, and loudest cheerleader.

"When Tyler got hit in the nose [against Duke] last season, I think they had to hold him back from rushing down onto the floor," said Ben, now 19. "And after one of our wins, he was up in the stands, swinging his shirt in the air. He definitely supports us."

His left side will always be weaker than the right, but after annual tests, doctors say there is a zero percent chance the tumor will return.

Greg, who talks to each brother several times a week, admits that when he watches them play, he can't help but wonder, "what if?" But he believes his illness happened for a reason, and that he's meant to do great things. Maybe one of them, the Hansbroughs say, is to be an example of work ethic and inspiration.

That's why Tyler wears No. 50, Greg's high school jersey number.

"It's one of those things where, I wanted, for everything he's done for me, I want him to feel like he's part of my accomplishments, too," Tyler said, pausing to choke back emotion. "For all he's been through, I want him to know I'll always remember him."

Especially in the spring, when it's time to run, heave more weight or attempt one more shot.

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