--- title: 5 Year Old on Utah Jazz Basketball Team: Video description: 5 year old with leukemia gets to play on the NBA basketball team. canonical: https://time.com/3478926/5-year-old-signs-with-utah-jazz/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-07T19:41:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:39.175Z og:title: 5-Year-Old Becomes the NBA's Most Adorable New Player for a Day og:description: Signed by the Utah Jazz og:url: https://time.com/3478926/5-year-old-signs-with-utah-jazz/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5-Year-Old Becomes the NBA's Most Adorable New Player for a Day twitter:description: Signed by the Utah Jazz twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 5-Year-Old Becomes the NBA's Most Adorable New Player for a Day  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 7, 2014 7:41 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 7, 2014 7:41 PM UTC A young basketball fan has scored a chance to play with the Utah Jazz. JP Gibson, a five-year-old who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2012, [signed](http://www.nba.com/jazz/news/jazz-sign-five-year-old-jp-gibson-scrimmage) a one-day contract with the NBA team. He donned a jersey and played in the [opening scrimmage](http://www.nba.com/jazz/news/jazz-scrimmage-rings-new-season) at the Oct. 6 game in Salt Lake City. The special day was organized by the “Anything Can Be” project, part of the Millie’s Princess Foundation, which provides financial support to families of children with cancer. **WATCH:** [Taylor Swift Sings, Dances and Plays Air Hockey With a Young Cancer Patient](http://time.com/3079471/watch-taylor-swift-sing-dance-and-play-air-hockey-with-a-young-cancer-patient/) **WATCH:** [The Trailer for the Batkid Documentary Will Make You Cry](http://time.com/3052858/batkid-documentary-trailer/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3478926/5-year-old-signs-with-utah-jazz/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3478926/5-year-old-signs-with-utah-jazz/"},"headline":"5-Year-Old Becomes the NBA's Most Adorable New Player for a Day","datePublished":"2014-10-07T19:41:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:39.175Z","description":"Signed by the Utah Jazz","url":"https://time.com/3478926/5-year-old-signs-with-utah-jazz/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3478926/5-year-old-signs-with-utah-jazz/","name":"5-Year-Old Becomes the NBA's Most Adorable New Player for a Day"}}]}] ```