--- title: Lakers Sign Make-A-Wish Recipient with Cancer to Contract description: Before the Lakers' Sunday night matchup against the Hornets, Yitzi Teichman was ceremonially signed to a one-day contract with the team. canonical: https://time.com/4202967/lakers-sign-make-a-wish-recipient-with-cancer-to-contract/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-01T20:48:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:29:32.646Z og:title: The Lakers Signed a Make-A-Wish Recipient with Cancer to a Contract og:description: "My first word was Kobe" og:url: https://time.com/4202967/lakers-sign-make-a-wish-recipient-with-cancer-to-contract/ 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: The Lakers Signed a Make-A-Wish Recipient with Cancer to a Contract twitter:description: "My first word was Kobe" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Lakers Signed a Make-A-Wish Recipient with Cancer to a Contract  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 1, 2016 8:48 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 1, 2016 8:48 PM UTC Before the Lakers’ Sunday night matchup against the Charlotte Hornets, Yitzi Teichman was ceremonially signed to a one-day contract with the Los Angeles basketball team. The 18-year-old is a [cancer patient](http://time.com/3963624/cancer-patient-legos/) from Baltimore who was brought to the Lakers by the [Make-A-Wish](http://time.com/2823319/make-a-wish-helps-8-year-old-boy-become-a-park-ranger-at-yosemite-for-a-day/) Foundation. He signed with the franchise during a pregame press conference with general manager, Mitch Kupchak, in front of local media > [](https://twitter.com/MarkG%5FMedina/status/693978168844120064) “I can’t thank \[the Make-A-Wish Foundation\] enough. This is not even possible, and they made it possible. They were like, ‘What do you want to do for your wish?,'” Teichman said. “It was pretty easy, I want to be a Laker. I didn’t have much of a shot considering my height; so it was either I’ve got to be good at basketball or get cancer. So, I went with the cancer route.” **Read More:** [Five-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Stars In Her Own Katy Perry Music Video](http://time.com/91166/make-a-wish-foundation-katy-perry-music-video/) The teen also had the opportunity to shoot around with the team during warmups, sit courtside during the game and talk to some of his favorite players. Teichman said he has been a Lakers fan since birth. “I was born,” he [told the L.A. Times](http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/la-sp-ln-make-a-wish-yitzi-teichman-lakers-20160201-story.html). “My first word was [Kobe](http://time.com/4128895/kobe-bryant-retirement-career-pictures-lakers/).” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4202967/lakers-sign-make-a-wish-recipient-with-cancer-to-contract/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4202967/lakers-sign-make-a-wish-recipient-with-cancer-to-contract/"},"headline":"The Lakers Signed a Make-A-Wish Recipient with Cancer to a Contract","datePublished":"2016-02-01T20:48:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:32.646Z","description":"\"My first word was Kobe\"","url":"https://time.com/4202967/lakers-sign-make-a-wish-recipient-with-cancer-to-contract/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Basketball","Sports topic","Cancer","Kobe Bryant","NBA"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"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/4202967/lakers-sign-make-a-wish-recipient-with-cancer-to-contract/","name":"The Lakers Signed a Make-A-Wish Recipient with Cancer to a Contract"}}]}] ```