Column: Clippers podiatrist’s efforts to help seriously ill kids no small feat

Michael Levi keeps tabs on a lot of toes. In fact, the Santa Monica podiatrist might have the most eclectic roster of patients in the area: the L.A. Ballet company, primates at the zoo, the star-studded Clippers.

That’s right, the Clips have a team podiatrist. Once or twice a week during the season, players come to him in the training room at Staples. What slick tires are to Indy cars, healthy feet are to pro ballers.

“The pounding, the jumping, the sprained ankles ... you get turf toe, hematoma, plantar fasciitis,” Levi explains.

So Levi keeps busy, all right. He’s also an avid triathlete, up at 4:30 each morning to run, or swim with his masters team, before heading off to his various duties, including his post as chief of the podiatric surgery section at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica.

For 15 years, he was also John Wooden’s personal podiatrist, making house calls to the legend’s home each Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesdays with Wooden. Not a bad title for a book. And not a bad entry on your resume, but honestly, I know a lot of hard-chargers like Levi, busy overachievers who can’t sit still. In L.A., you could pave the streets with them.

What really elevates Levi’s game — far beyond the toe dancers at the ballet and the NBA — is a little gesture he makes when he’s done treating superstars. Pulling out Clippers jerseys he purchases himself, he asks Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and company to personally sign them to children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

“If you’re going through chemo, and you have a shirt from your hero...”

Got it, doc.

In a sports world crazy with crisis and misbehavior, we give you Michael Levi, a mild-mannered podiatrist with some uncommon hoop dreams — bringing huge grins to young patients short on such stuff.

During Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, his efforts deserve a little extra notice, even as he deflects. He’s just setting picks for others, he insists.

Last week, he took Clippers Coach Doc Rivers along on one of his magical runs. The two spent an evening giving pep talks to some of the children at the offices of Chai Lifeline, a charity that assists families dealing with pediatric illnesses. It’s through Chai Lifeline that Levi locates the patients at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles who need a boost.

This night, the two docs, Levi and Rivers, are lining up autographed gifts for the kids. When a child is undergoing chemo or stem cell transplants, a family learns to appreciate every day, sure, but this day is extra special. Rivers gives a good talk — funny, candid, inspiring, the kind of heartfelt chat that even Coach Wooden would have had trouble topping.

One thing about childhood illness is that it makes everything else so trivial. Aaron Brock, 8, has undergone eight operations in a fight against debilitating abdominal issues. Benny Brecher, 3, is bouncing around the room after winning the battle against a rare childhood cancer called neuroblastoma, says his mother, Faigie.

The sick kids are the priorities, but siblings and parents sacrifice and endure heartbreak as well. Chai Lifeline tries to help with all this, in ways big and small, through people famous and not. People like Rivers and Levi.

“Michael is all about bringing joy and happiness to others,” says Chai Lifeline’s Randi Grossman, who oversees a West Coast region that is currently helping about 400 families.

“The joy that these jerseys bring to the kids is priceless,” says Levi, who picks them up at local sporting goods stores.

All he asks from the families is a thank-you note.

“Dear Blake Griffin and Chris Paul,” writes Faigie Brecher.

“Benny has been going through grueling chemotherapy treatments, which has been extremely difficult,” she writes. “To be able to see Benny laugh and smile is a very special gift for all of us.... I want to thank you again from the bottom of my heart.”

Meanwhile, up at the lectern, Rivers starts off by teasing the busy team podiatrist: “The reason I really came is that he threatened to make my feet hurt.”

In a 45-minute talk, Rivers tells inspiring stories of his policeman father urging him to “Always finish the race.”

“Whenever you have a goal, you have to finish it,” his dad explained to Rivers when he was still in grade school.

True, in the realm of life-threatening illnesses, the usual sports aphorisms could seem a little trite. But Rivers is so genuine, so tuned in to the situation, the crowd falls for him — parents, kids, volunteers, staffers. The cramped room, stuffy with late-summer heat, lights up as if witnessing the first great Clippers rally of the season.

Which it is.

chris.erskine@latimes.com

Twitter: @erskinetimes