The elite of Bay Area sports gathered atop Nob Hill on Wednesday night to do the most basic thing athletes can do: respect their coach.

“The way he taught me to play the game and encouraged me and always was straight with me — he taught me to play the right way,” said Pablo Sandoval of his Giants manager, Bruce Bochy.

Sandoval was among the stars who came out for the Game Changer Awards, a benefit at the Fairmont hotel for Coaching Corps, a nonprofit that provides coaching for underserved communities. The event will be aired on NBC Sports Bay Area at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Others honoring their coaches were Warriors guard Klay Thompson, with high school coach Jerry DeBusk; 49ers receiver Marquise Goodwin with high school coach Richard McCroan; A’s shortstop Marcus Semien with former A’s infield coach Ron Washington; former Raiders safety Charles Woodson with college assistant coach Vance Bedford; and Cal basketball player Kristine Anigwe honoring Lindsay Gottlieb, the Bears’ head coach.

Sandoval was 22 when he came up with the Giants and Bochy was his manager.

Former Giants manager Felipe Alou “kept telling me about this pudgy kid we had down in A ball,” said Bochy, speaking by video, because he was in Hawaii for his son’s wedding.

That pudgy kid became a great Giant. He also grew into a man with the Giants, under Bochy’s tutelage.

There was tough love, like constant concerns about Sandoval’s weight. Before one World Baseball Classic, when Sandoval desperately wanted to play for Venezuela, Bochy was concerned that Sandoval had put on “a big winter coat.” In 2010, Bochy left him off a playoff roster because of concerns about fitness and discipline.

Did it come between them? “It never did,” Sandoval said.

After torching bridges in the Bay Area and signing with the Red Sox, Sandoval returned, and turned first to Bochy.

“I needed to apologize to the fans and the organization and my teammates,” Sandoval said. “He gave me the opportunity to make it right.”

Sandoval’s praise echoes that of Bochy’s other players. He usually takes their mistakes on his shoulders. He is honest with them.

Sandoval considers Bochy a father figure, who taught him to do things the right way.

“Professionally, yes, and as a human, too,” he said. “The way he is with his family.”

Sandoval returned a different man, willing to do anything for the Giants — even pitch an inning in one of the rare delightful moments of the 2018 season. Sandoval has one more year on his contract, at the major-league minimum. “I’m just going to be ready, and bring a bag with all of my gloves,” Sandoval said.

By video, Bochy joked, “He can put the outfielder’s glove away.”

Who knows what will happen with the Giants? Some bonds last forever. This one will.

Bochy said he’ll place this award in his office. “And I’ll look at it with pride,” he said.

Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion