Dmitri Moore couldn’t believe his eyes.
Lying in his Primary Children’s Hospital bed in Salt Lake City, a familiar pair of Nike shoes appeared on his television screen.
He had seen these Kobe 8 Venice Beaches before. Just a few days earlier, while lying in the same bed, the 14-year-old from Bountiful had held them in his hands, but now they were courtside at a BYU basketball game being played miles away.
The shoes belonged to Cougars guard Jared McGregor, who was wearing them with pride after having had them autographed earlier that week.
The autograph had come from Dmitri.
McGregor had paid Dmitri a surprise visit during a break from his chemotherapy treatments, spending an evening with the Moore family and declining to leave until “D-money” signed a pair of his game shoes.
For the young BYU fan Dmitri, hanging out with one of his Cougar heroes — and scribbling a “D$” on the outsole of his sneaker — wasn’t just a cool surprise. It was a distraction from his painful, frightening reality, a newfound source of light at a time when he really needed some.
“For that day, I felt normal,” Dmitri told the Deseret News of McGregor’s visit. “It was just so good to see him. I felt so blessed.”
“That was really special,” Dmitri’s mother, Leslie Moore, tearfully said. “That was a huge surprise for D that Jared pulled out his shoes and said, ‘Now you sign them.’”
Dmitri isn’t the only one with a story like this.
Amid the excitement of BYU’s past campaign where the Cougars reached the Sweet 16, McGregor made an effort to visit ailing individuals the night before almost every game, both at home and on the road. He did this largely on his own and without many of his teammates and coaches knowing, solely wanting to do something he felt was right.
“I just don’t want to leave here feeling like I didn’t make a difference,” McGregor told the Deseret News. “Being able to (make visits) before every game, being able to touch someone was super meaningful for me.
“... I’ve been really fortunate in my life, I’ve been blessed with great health and amazing opportunities. I feel like because I’ve been blessed and have had these opportunities, I want to do good in return for those around me and try to make people happy.”
A standout hooper at Westlake High — he averaged 15.5 points per game as a senior and hit 178 career 3-pointers — McGregor always dreamed of playing college ball for the Cougars but didn’t generate much recruiting buzz.
Following a mission to Spokane, Washington, McGregor joined Mark Pope’s program as a team manager in 2021, serving in that capacity for a year before successfully walking on to the team.
“These are the kinds of things you dream about as a kid,” McGregor said of cracking BYU’s roster. “For it to become a reality, it was just a miracle, to be honest.”
When new head coach Kevin Young arrived in Provo, McGregor was excited for the future of the program, but initially had a difficult time adjusting to all of the changes and figuring out where he fit within Young’s operation.
Sitting in the Marriott Center parking lot with his mother one day last summer, an overwhelmed McGregor pondered what the next stage of his BYU journey would look like.
In that moment of uncertainty, McGregor’s focus turned outward, and an idea was born.
“In that conversation, we talked about just making a difference,” McGregor recalled. “We talked about taking advantage of the opportunity of being at this stage, being a highly relevant team in the country and doing good with that, trying to make some sort of an impact on the community.”
McGregor determined that he wanted to focus his service on the sick and afflicted, spending time with such individuals and their families to offer support and hopefully give them a reason to smile.
He called it the “Name of the Game” project.
“This is why we play the game. We bring entertainment, we put on a good show. But we also want to help show that these are the kinds of things that matter, you know, touching lives and impacting people,” McGregor said. “That’s honestly what brings joy.”
He approached a personal mentor, Nathan (name changed out of his request for anonymity to keep his involvement private), asking what he thought of the idea to serve, to which Nathan provided immediate encouragement to help bring the project’s vision to life.
McGregor had wanted to bring gifts for everyone he visited, but the required expenses to do so proved too steep for the walk-on to handle alone. When he went back to Nathan to ask if he would be willing to help cover the cost of giving away specialty blankets along with autographed basketballs and exclusive team-issued gear, not only was Nathan more than happy to support the cause, but one of his friends joined him in doing so to expand McGregor’s efforts even further.
“(McGregor) was a manager, he worked his way onto the team, he hustled and figured out a way to add value,” Nathan said. “This just really resonated with me, that he just wanted to leave a legacy that exceeds anything he could accomplish while he was actually on the court.
“I can’t think of a better way to embody the mission of the church,” he continued. “I always think about it in scriptural terms, that when you are in the service of your fellow men, you are in the service of your God. What a great way for Jared to use his positive platform and use basketball to help have a bigger impact on God’s children.”
To organize his visits — more than 20 in all — McGregor would reach out to Latter-day Saint bishops and stake presidents from wherever BYU was playing, asking if there was anyone in their congregations who could use a visit — Cougar fans or not.
Some visits were made in homes or hospitals, with the local bishop or stake president driving McGregor there. On other occasions, families came to meet him in the lobby of the team hotel. When the Cougars played at Iowa State in March, McGregor arranged for the visit to take place at Hilton Coliseum the night before the game.
In addition to visits throughout Utah, McGregor touched lives in San Diego, Fort Worth, Orlando, Phoenix, Boulder, Tucson and Ames over the course of the regular season. Even when he didn’t travel with the Cougars for their road matchup against Houston, McGregor enlisted teammate Trey Stewart to make the scheduled visit and deliver gifts on his behalf.
McGregor spent time with little children, most of whom didn’t fully realize the severity of their circumstances. He visited with teenage athletes who had been forced to put their sports ambitions on hold as they dealt with disease. He met families who had immigrated to the United States and were still learning English. He was embraced by patients who weren’t interested in basketball, but were nonetheless grateful for someone being willing to keep them company.
For McGregor, the experience has been far greater than he could have imagined. It’s been rewarding, humbling and a consistent source of inspiration throughout the ups and downs of a basketball season.
But it’s also been especially personal.
At the age of 4, McGregor lost his father, Mark, to cancer.
Now, in regularly visiting with and caring for young individuals fighting the same battle, he’s able to honor the memory of his late father, who he feels is continuing to influence his life today.
“There’s a special heartstring there,” McGregor said, referring to the connection between his father and his service. “It’s been cool to visit cancer patients and see the joy they felt.
“There’s a quote we always had in our house growing up. It said, ‘One way to have a little bit of heaven in your home is to have someone from your home in heaven,’ and that’s so true. I know he’s for sure watching over me and is a huge reason I am where I am right now.”
At 14 years old this past December, Dmitri was diagnosed with Stage 4 Burkitt non-Hodgkin lymphoma. His subsequent recovery entailed 17 blood transfusions, 67 blood draws, 60 nights in the hospital and 128 doses of chemotherapy, losing 30 pounds in the process.
When McGregor visited in early January, Dmitri was in the midst of a particularly rough stretch of treatment. Spirits were low, and things felt bleak.
McGregor’s visit made a major difference.
“It was almost like you could forget you were getting treatment for cancer while he was with you,” said Dmitri’s father, Chris Moore. “It was a good day, it was a great day. That was the biggest thing we took from that day, it was like, ‘Wow, Jared came to visit,’ not that (Dmitri) was getting pumped full of chemo again, which he was that day. But the best thing that day was Jared coming.
“... It just kind of hammers home to us how different BYU is, and just the kind of special community and fellowship that we have there. ... It was a very BYU thing of (Jared) to do.”
“Dmitri used that blanket all the time, every day,” Leslie Moore said. “The blanket (Jared) gave him has been well-used and well-loved. It was just so sweet that Jared could have been anywhere, going out with his teammates or friends, but he chose to serve and find something meaningful to do with what gifts he was given to pay it back and make these kids’ day.”
Far more than just the blanket remained with Dmitri following McGregor’s visit.
“His background, with how he just stuck with (his dream) and went from a team manager to actually playing, that was really cool,” Dmitri said. “It taught me to just stay positive, that anything can happen when you believe and stay on the bright side.”
Such belief paid off. In June, Dmitri successfully completed his cancer treatments and is on the road to a full recovery. When he finally rang the bell at the end of chemo, he made sure to send the video of it to McGregor.
“I feel really blessed that I got to meet him, and just seeing him really gave me hope,” Dmitri said. “I just felt like I should share that moment with him; he’s my friend.”
A friend with the signed shoes to prove it.
McGregor is a glue guy — and proud of it.
He knows he won’t get into many games for the Cougars. He knows he isn’t the player that will be tasked with getting buckets in crunch time or shutting down an opposing scorer.
Instead, he mans the practice squad, grinding daily to help starters and rotation players improve and prepare for upcoming matchups. He tries to lead by example, doing whatever is asked of him along with little things behind the scenes that help everything run more smoothly. He works to get guys more loose and happy, keeping morale high and chemistry intact both on and off the court.
Every championship-caliber team is filled with glue guys, whose entire purpose is to be as unselfish as possible and do whatever may be necessary to build up his teammates.
It’s a role McGregor loves, which makes the selflessness of his “Name of the Game” endeavor even more understandable. All the principles of being a glue guy perfectly align with his desire to serve.
McGregor has described earning a spot on BYU’s roster as “a miracle.” In reality, playing for the Cougars has simply allowed him to be part of an even greater miracle — uplifting those scattered all across the country who are in need of hope, joy and light.
“I’m just trying my best to do what Christ would do and fulfill the mission of both the church and BYU,” McGregor said. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot while I’ve been here, and like our motto says with going forth to serve, that’s what I want to do from here on out. As this project carries on into next season, I want to make it even bigger and try to touch as many people as I can.”
As McGregor looks to go about doing even more good in the coming campaign, those in his corner hope his efforts will inspire others at BYU and beyond to find their own opportunities to serve.
“We share stories like this to positively motivate people,” Nathan said. “That’s why we read the scriptures. We read the scriptures to be reminded of Christ and of his acts of service.
“If we can have other people hearing about Jared’s work, about what he did and his service, hopefully one, five, dozens or hundreds of other people will be motivated to demonstrate the same level of charity, love and service that Jared has demonstrated,” he continued. “That’s really ultimately what I hope his story is all about, that it motivates others to follow his example.”
