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Williams, at 71, says he feels "very good" and that doctors offer an encouraging prognosis for living with multiple myeloma, a disease that strikes approximately 20,000 people a year, according to the National Cancer Institute. He coined a catch phrase for the planned recovery: "The Mission is Remission." When the health news went public, the gregarious Williams got countless cards, e-mails and phone calls, from friends who hadn't been in contact in decades to friends from around the league to friends he hadn't met yet. It was the kind of words people say at your funeral, he called them. There were long stretches of nights with little more than two hours of sleep at a time, waking with dry mouth after a restless night punctuated by vivid dreams. But, he reports, "The transplant is working. It seems to be hitting home. The old cells are out, the dead ones are gone through chemo, and 4.9 million new stem cells from my body go back into my body. Modern medicine. Wow." NBA.com

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Sam Gardner: Magic Sr. VP and team founder Pat Williams named winner of John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award by Basketball Hall of Fame. Twitter

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

And now, as Orlando gets ready to have the time of its life during this NBA All-Star Weekend, Pat Williams continues to fight for his own survival. "I've got a lot more life to live," says Pat, the co-founder, father and senior vice president of the Orlando Magic. "I've got more books to write, more speeches to give and all my grandchildren to educate." He is sitting out by his swimming pool in Winter Park as three of his granddaughters — Audri, Ava and Laila — are frolicking in the sun down near the banks of Lake Killarney. It was almost a year ago to this very day when Pat sat at this same table and told me he had cancer. Bad cancer. Orlando Sentinel

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

The disease is called multiple myeloma, an aggressive cancer that infiltrates the blood plasma in the bone marrow. It is inoperable and incurable but sometimes can be treated with chemo to the point of inactivity. "The Mission is Remission!" Pat declared that day a year ago. "Well," Pat says now, "the chemo didn't work." Orlando Sentinel

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

"Pat's always been the ultimate optimist," Hewitt says. "He's always been the one guy who believes anything is possible — whether its bringing an NBA franchise to a football town or fighting cancer. His motto has always been, "We can do it! We can get it done!" It's this attitude that has allowed Pat to live and fight the next battle with multiple myeloma. After nearly a year's worth of chemo failed, doctors at Florida Hospital have taken it to the next level. It's known as a stem cell transplant. Or as Pat — the ultimate baseball junkie — calls it, "the out pitch." "I wanted them to throw me everything they had in their medicine cabinet," Pat says and smiles. Orlando Sentinel

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

I’ve been pestering him for info since the early ’70s and never was he unavailable for comment. Why should this be any different? We spoke for over an hour but didn’t get to his well-being until very late in the conversation. Like everyone else, Pat was primed to talk about Jeremy Lin. He watched Lin mangle the Mavericks on Sunday. “Peter, you and I have seen a lot of crazy stories unfold over the years, but we’ve never lived through anything like this. Fernando Valenzuela is the closest. He came out of Mexico a 20-year-old unknown, won 10 straight over two seasons, eight straight to start the ’81 season and led the Dodgers to a World Series championship. He was electrifying and got the country whipped up. Lin has the whole world atwitter.” New York Post

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Pat Williams goes to bed every night never knowing what new scene will break the darkness, only that the visits have become common since he started on medication and chemotherapy in early-February. (No sightings of a Magic championship yet, though.) The rest is fitful. He estimates his energy level at 80-85 percent of 2010. His new workout routine centers on a stationary bike, without the jarring activities of jogging or heavy lifting. "The new normal," he said. The new Pat Williams. NBA.com

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

This one is still senior vice president of the Magic, still making about 10 speeches a month as one of the fun personalities of the NBA, and still writing books at an assembly-line pace. Only now it's with cancer. When Williams learned in January through a routine physical that he had multiple myeloma -- cancer of bone marrow cells -- everything and nothing changed. He immediately became an outspoken advocate for sticking to a schedule of annual check-ups, hoping to especially encourage men, the stubborn gender, and any message from such a gifted speaker was sure to be delivered. But he has also mostly stuck to his previous schedule as one of the franchise's most visible faces in the community. NBA.com

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Williams ducks nothing with his situation, lamenting the decreased energy and describing how he was so emotionally frayed in the early days after the diagnosis that the slightest event could send him into tears. Plus, there are the regular night visitors. He has been relatively fortunate, though, in avoiding an especially bad reaction to the chemo, nothing along the lines of regular bouts of nausea or hair loss. Most importantly heading toward a scheduled major evaluation in a couple weeks, the former general manager of the Magic, 76ers and Bulls said doctors have been encouraging in their feedback. NBA.com

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Pat Williams' typical day begins with a 30- to 60-minute workout on an exercise bike. He travels regularly to make motivational speeches. And he keeps a full schedule as senior vice president of the Orlando Magic, the team he co-founded in 1986. Williams is 71, and has written exactly that number of books. "Extreme Focus: Harnessing the Life-Changing Power to Achieve Your Dreams" came out last spring. He hopes to finish two more by the end of the year, and come out with No. 75 next spring. Williams has also run 58 marathons, all in the past 15 years. But he's taking a break from that to battle multiple myeloma, an incurable form of cancer. Delaware News Journal

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Everything else, including his daily workouts, has remained the same. "It's important to me to live as normal a life as I can," said Williams, a Tower Hill graduate and former 76ers general manager. "I really haven't changed. That's important mentally, more than anything." "Normal" for Williams, of course, is quite different from the "normal" of everybody else. Williams raised 19 children, 14 of whom were adopted from four countries. He took over a 76ers team that was one season removed from the 9-73 disaster in 1972-73, which still stands as the worst record in NBA history. By 1977, the Sixers were in the NBA Finals. Delaware News Journal

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Williams' attitude is not surprising to those who know him best. That includes Ruly Carpenter, whose family owned the Phillies from 1943-81. Carpenter befriended Williams during their years at Tower Hill, where Williams' father was a history teacher. "He's still going full-speed ahead," Carpenter said. "I wouldn't expect anything different." Delaware News Journal

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Everyone gets the joke. LeBron's infamous announcement of signing with the Heat is now part of the lexicon of sports. "I've been around 43 years in the NBA and I don't remember a year quite this interesting and with this much conversation," said Pat Williams, Orlando Magic senior vice president. "It's stirred an enormous amount of interest. I think that's best reflected in the TV ratings." South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, LeBron James, Pat Williams 

Zach McCann: Another cool story from @Pat Williams: When the Magic announced their team name in '86, Magic Johnson was visiting Disney reporter tracked him down for a quote. His quote was, "It is a great honor if they are naming it after me. Maybe before my career is over, I could get a chance to play for the Orlando Magic. Twitter

Orlando Magic, Magic Johnson, Pat Williams 

Pat Williams: I have received so many tweets and I wanted to say thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful messages to me recently. Twitter

Pat Williams 

Pat Williams: I'm not getting bitter, I'm getting better. #TheMissionIsRemission Twitter

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

The longtime Orlando Magic executive was diagnosed with blood multiple myeloma, an incurable, but treatable blood cancer. The 70-year-old Williams was diagnosed with the disease after taking a routine physical early in January. The vice president of the Magic is, as always, optimistic about his chances of beating the disease. At an appearance Wednesday, Williams wore a T-shirt with the slogan: "The mission is remission.'' "I am going to beat this,'' Williams said at a press conference attended by more than half of his 19 children, 14 of which were adopted from countries all over the world. "I am fully engaged with the activities that bring me joy and fulfillment. "I don't think you want me to sit around sucking my thumb and bemoaning my problems. I'm going to go on with my life as normal as I'm able.'' SI.com

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Williams, who previously served as general manager for the Magic and three other NBA franchises in his 40-plus year career, is receiving chemotherapy treatments twice-a-week while taking medicine that his doctor said is designed to hone in on malignant cells. "I expect Pat to be able to live with this for many years,'' said Dr. Robert Reynolds, the specialist treating Williams. "People diagnosed with this disease in the 1980s and '90s were looking at short life expectations, but with the treatment available now, people commonly live for many years.'' SI.com

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

Pat Williams has bone cancer. "I've delivered many a motivational speech about the stuff you always hear about in sports," says Williams, the founder and executive vice president of the Orlando Magic. "I've stood up there and told other people you can't give up and you've got to show courage, perseverance and will. Now, I get to live out the things I always talk about. That's a privilege." Orlando Sentinel

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams 

It's called multiple myeloma, an aggressive cancer that pollutes the blood plasma in the bone marrow. Williams was diagnosed five weeks ago after an extensive physical the Magic require of all their executives. Multiple myeloma is inoperable and incurable, but sometimes can be treated with chemo to the point of inactivity. Orlando Sentinel

Orlando Magic, Pat Williams