Favorite Sun Hard-working family man toils for Phoenix Suns basketball team. How can Suns fans not love a guy like Jake Voskuhl? By Rick Weber

Zoie is stealing the show. From the back of the room, Jake Voskuhl's 16-month-old daughter is yelling, "Daddy! Daddy!" and waving to him.

Voskuhl, wearing his trademark long sideburns and a T-shirt depicting Michael Jordan's wingspan, waves back and continues talking. Next thing he knows, she is in front of him. "Zoie," he says, "where's your belly?"

She sneezes, lifts up her shirt, and caresses her belly button. Then she waddles back to her mom, Jennifer, retrieves a miniature red, white, and blue basketball and returns to the stage to present it to her 6-foot-11, 245-pound father.

There is uproarious laughter and applause from the crowd of over 200 junior- and senior-high students and family members assembled at Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church in Katy, Texas, not far from the Voskuhl's house.

Voskuhl continues with his testimony. It is remarkable not because of the way it's presented-in chronological order, from his days at Strake Jesuit College Prep to the University of Connecticut to the Chicago Bulls and now the Phoenix Suns-but because of the stark, bare bones honesty he unashamedly offers and the sincere thankfulness he exhibits for the work that Jesus Christ has done in his life.

Voskuhl will tell his listeners that he concluded early in his days at UConn, that he was "a jerk," and that he hated himself and the arrogance that controlled his behavior. He will tell them that God was with him even when he wasn't with God, citing at least one instance when God supernaturally put a veil of protection over him, keeping him from a high-speed SUV accident. He will praise God for delivering him from the powerful hold that drugs had on him.

He will tell these impressionable students that there is only one way.

"I've been saved 6 years," the 26-year-old Voskuhl says, "and I can't begin to express and give words to what my life has been like and what a blessing it is to have my wife and daughter and our families. The Lord has done so much in changing us.

"Why is it important to accept Jesus Christ? There are only two kinds of people in the world: the people who are saved and those who are not saved. At the end of the day, that's all that's going to matter, because either you're going to heaven or you're going to hell. There's no gray area."

When the doctor at Bethany Home Birthing Center in Phoenix viewed the ultrasound in September, he had some good news for Jake and 4-months-pregnant Jennifer: It's a girl. Then he gave them the bad news: He noticed a growth on one of the ovaries of the fetus. The next day, they went to a fetal ultrasound specialist who told them it was a cyst, and it was bigger than the stomach of the fetus. He said he would have to monitor the cyst over the coming weeks. If it got any bigger, they could lose the baby.

Jake and Jennifer prayed. They went to Jake's mother, who got her prayer chain involved. Everyone was praying for a girl they wanted to know and love.

A month later, the Voskuhls went back for another ultrasound. There was no cyst. Nothing was wrong with the fetus. The technician did not believe it. She kept examining the ultrasound, trying to find a cyst that did not exist. She tracked down the doctor. He couldn't find anything either.

"It was a miracle," Jake says. "God intervened, without question."

His reaction was one of praise and gratitude. Asked how the old Jake would have reacted, he says, "First of all, I would not have asked a bunch of people to pray. I'd have said, 'Whatever happens, happens.' "

The old Jake was a nightmare. Even though he was a member of the UConn basketball team-the only thing that matters in that area of the country-he was not worshiped like the other players. He says he knows this because his ostentatious Ford Bronco-known around the campus for its 39-inch tires-was continually vandalized.

"That's one way to know people don't like you," he says. "If you're going around and you're just arrogant and rude to people and disrespectful to everyone and you just think you can walk over anybody, people don't like that. But to be honest, I didn't like the person I had become.

"I was having all these successes, but inside I was just miserable. I hated myself. Everyone who was close to me-other than my mom and dad-didn't want to be around me. I had become such a jerk."

Drinking was a problem. Drugs were an even more insidious problem. His marijuana use was not a secret. One day, Huskies coach Jim Calhoun approached Voskuhl and said, "You're taking a drug test. Are you going to pass?" Feigning bravado, Voskuhl responded, "I'm going to pass."

He did pass. He doesn't know how, but he did. And it only fueled his recklessness. To blot out the emptiness he felt, he partied even harder.

But in the summer between his freshman and sophomore years, Jake could feel something tugging at him. During an altar call at Family Bible Church in Sugar Land, Texas, one Sunday, he walked down the church aisle and accepted Jesus Christ.

"I just knew I needed a change in my life," he says. "For me, it took some time after that. It wasn't like an instant change where I was delivered from everything. I struggled with some issues. But the big thing was-for the first time in my life I'd actually feel bad about some of the things that I did. I was praying and asking God for a change. And in the summer between my sophomore and junior years, I completely stopped smoking and I've never touched the stuff since. The Lord just delivered me from it."

His mentor in the months and years that followed was Kerry Lucas, the Pastor at Family Bible Church. Lucas counseled Voskuhl for an hour before UConn's upset win over Duke in the 1999 NCAA championship game. During the summer at the Big Man Camp in Hawaii, they stayed up all night talking about spiritual things.

During the school year, Jake and Jennifer went to Light on the Hill Church in Willimantic, Connecticut, where Jennifer was attending Eastern Connecticut State University.

They married on September 9, 2000, and that only served to strengthen his relationship with God.

Voskuhl has found that the single most important factor in that relationship is spending consistent time with the Lord on a daily basis.

"It helps me stay rested and stay focused," he says. "It gives me peace of mind. I have to do it. If I haven't done it for a day or two, I can really tell the difference."

His favorite devotionals right now are God Calling, by A. J. Russell, and Men of Character: Ninety Days of Inspirational Readings to Affirm, Strengthen and Encourage the Man of Character, by Lawrence Kimbrough.

He has drawn strength and wisdom from Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time, by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker, and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person that People Want to Follow, by John C. Maxwell.

Voskuhl goes to chapel before every game, home and away. He has been encouraged and challenged by Keith Brown, the Suns' chaplain and president of Christian Athlete Ministries. In the nearly two years that Voskuhl has spent in Phoenix since being traded from the Bulls, Brown has observed Voskuhl's spiritual growth.

"I see him as one who is really desirous to grow in his faith," Brown says. "He's one of the most committed guys I've been around in my 16 years of doing this. He gets other guys to come to chapel. I know he has a big heart for prayer, because he's always coming in with different prayer requests. There have been times when he has wondered what my opinion has been on Scripture and other things. It seems like whatever Scriptures I've shared, he's really considered them and takes them to heart and forms his own opinion based on what the Scriptures have said."

Brown says that at camps and speaking engagements, Voskuhl's love for Christ is the overriding thing he notices.

"He doesn't try to promote himself," Brown says. "He tries to promote Christ. What he leaves behind is not, 'Jake Voskuhl came to visit,' but, 'Here's what Jake Voskuhl stands for.' He's basically saying, 'Here's the change that has come in my life, and the only good thing about me is Christ in me.' "

Voskuhl will sometimes run into people he hasn't seen since his freshman year at UConn, and he'll wonder to himself: "Do they still think I'm the same guy who used to go out and party and be a madman?"

He's a better man. And he's a better basketball player.

The Suns have placed their faith in him. Two months after he hit a jump hook over Tim Duncan to win Game 4 of the Suns' playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs, the Suns signed him to a 3-year, $5.1-million contract. And then, 2 months after that, they traded center Jake Tsakalidis to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Voskuhl plays hard. So hard that an opposing team's scout was quoted in Sports Illustrated as saying, "Jake Voskuhl tries to overcome his lack of strength by making you pay for everything you get. I warn my big guys not to get frustrated by Voskuhl, because that's what he wants." When Voskuhl hears that for the first time, he laughs and says, "I don't go out there in that mindset. I think that's a fine line, and I don't cross that line in terms of playing dirty. I don't cheap-shot people. I don't believe in that. That goes against my character and my testimony and who I'm supposed to be and who I am in Christ. No way are we supposed to go out and play soft. I play hard. And the players respect that."

Voskuhl's testimony is over. He has answered dozens of questions-including one from a boy who wants to know which NBA center is toughest to guard and isn't surprised to learn that it's Shaq-and is now signing autographs.

Brandon Pichanick, 13, approaches Voskuhl with his Bible. Voskuhl opens it to Romans 12:1 and signs over the passage. Pichanick goes to a table on the other side of the room, opens his Bible and reads the passage aloud: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (KJV).

Pichanick is visibly moved by the passage and what it represents in the context of the evening's testimony.

"I will always think of Jake, because he signed it," he says. "I'm going to keep this Bible forever.

"For him to be involved in alcohol and drugs and to be saved . . . it's just a miracle. It's so cool. God had a plan for him. He gave him this talent to play basketball, and He knew that nothing could stand in His way. He just had to give him that faith."

When this story is relayed later to Voskuhl, he nods and smiles.

"That's cool when you hear things like that," he says. "The Lord is using me to impact young lives. I feel I was there because the Lord obviously set things up for me to be there. I don't go up there with expectations of putting on this great thing. I just try to keep it simple and let the Lord do all the work. He uses me."

Used by permission, Sports Spectrum magazine Visit Sports Spectrum at www.SportsSpectrum.com

Aerial shot of Jake Voskuhl and Jermaine O'Neal, Pacers: Photo by: Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images Photo of Jake Voskuhl and Kareen Rush, Lakers: Photo by: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images Family Photo courtesy: Jake and Jennifer Voskuhl