At 82-years young, Jerry Colangelo still going strong with Basketball HOF Golf Classic, Integrity Summit

Jerry Colangelo has a busy stretch starting with a dinner Thursday to kick off his 11th Basketball Hall of Fame Golf Classic on Friday at The Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park.

Next week, he’s having the 11th Integrity Summit on Oct. 12 at Chateau Luxe.

Nothing to it for the 82-years-young Colangelo.

“I’ve been blessed with good health,” he said. “I’ve had some things along the way like everyone else. Beat prostate cancer and a few other things, but today, I’m very healthy and I have a lot of energy. My attitude has always been I’ll go as long as I can and as hard as I can until I can’t."

The Hall of Fame golf events have raised $2 million for its educational platforms and museum preservation projects.

"I’ll get the tap on the shoulder from the man upstairs who says, ‘You know, I think you’re done,’" Colangelo continued. "Until that happens, I want to be a positive influence on my family, my workplace, the community, young people. It’s all about trying to make this world a better place in which to live.”

The former Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks team owner has a who’s who list joining him for the dinner or golf event – or both – starting with several Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductees.

• Gary Payton

• Rudy Tomjanovich

• Sheryl Swoopes

• Van Chancellor

• Jack Sikma

• George Karl

• Spencer Haywood

• Rick Barry

• Alex English

• Charlie Scott

• Mitch Richmond

• Chris Mullin

• Ralph Sampson

Then there’s the Suns connection – current head coach Monty Williams and former players Tom Van Arsdale, Dick Van Arsdale, Cedric Ceballos, Mark West, Oliver Miller, Garfield Heard, Eddie Johnson and Tim Kempton. Scott also is a former Sun.

Colangelo also expects Mercury All-Star and future Hall of Famer, Diana Taurasi, to make an appearance as well as former NBA coach P.J. Carlesimo and former NBA players Michael Cooper, Ron Harper, Fat Lever and Vinny Del Negro, who also coached in the league.

In addition, former Arizona Cardinals defensive lineman Michael Bankston and former Arizona Diamondbacks infielder Junior Spivey, who was on the 2001 World Series championship team, are looking to join the festivities.

“That’s a really good group,” Colangelo said. "The world of sports – players, coaches – it’s kind of a family. Of course this is basketball family with extra guests.”

A week later, the summit will address the importance of having integrity in sports management and ownership, how having integrity can help grow a business and preventing “integrity breaches” in the workplace.

“There was so much in the newspapers and stories about lack of integrity in the business world,” said Colangelo, who teamed up with GO Media founder and CEO, Gregg Ostro, to launch the summit a little more than a decade ago.

“We read about all the issues every day and that’s in the workplace, that’s in the schools. So I posed the question – how many of you are willing to admit you’ve taken shortcuts? Bottom line, you’ve cheated along the way to get to your finish line and it was unbelievable how many people, first of all, willing to acknowledge, raise their hands and admit it.”

This year’s summit comes on the heels of Robert Sarver looking to sell the Suns after the backlash that came from the findings in the NBA investigation of the Suns majority owner.

MORE: Robert Sarver announces intent to sell Suns, Mercury franchises

The 10-month investigation concluded Sarver used the N-word multiple times, made inappropriate comments to women in the workplace and verbally bullied and demeaned employees.

Sarver was suspended a year from any activities with the NBA, Suns and Mercury. He’s the majority owner of the WNBA franchise as well.

Colangelo has said he won’t discuss the Sarver situation,  said having a lack of integrity remains a constant theme in business.

“We were having the summit no matter what,” said Colangelo, who sold the Suns to Sarver for a then-record $401 million in 2004. “So all these things that happened in the world and the workplace in our community, they just point out how important this subject is.”

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jerry Colangelo still grinding with HOF Golf Classic, Integrity Summit