Printer-friendly version Email story link

Caution guides Aldridge's care

Blazer assistant, many others have had heart problems

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Apr 13, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

LaMarcus Aldridge was diagnosed with a heart malady and had surgery this week after leaving a game with a rapid heartbeat. The Blazers expect him to fully recover.

SAM FORENCICH / GETTY IMAGES

ADVERTISEMENTS

There is no reason to think LaMarcus Aldridge won’t enjoy a long, healthy, prosperous career in the NBA.

But when it comes to heart issues, there always is great concern about a player that goes beyond his playing future.

Aldridge should be able to resume normal activities next week after Monday’s treatment for Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. Blazer officials expect the 6-11 Trail Blazer rookie to take part in Las Vegas Summer League activities in July.

A rapid heartbeat forced the former Texas All-American from a March 31 game against the L.A. Clippers, after which it was determined he had WPW, a congenital condition found in three out of every 1,000 people.

WPW is in a category of electrical abnormalities called “pre-excitation syndromes.” There is an extra atrioventricular pathway to the heart that may result in rapid heartbeat. Some people with WPW show no symptoms. It is believed Aldridge had experienced no episodes until the Clipper game.

The Blazers’ medical staff presumably took great care in dealing with Aldridge’s situation. There is a long history in basketball of players dealing with heart-related issues, including one of the Blazer coaches.

Monty Williams, an assistant on Nate McMillan’s staff, was a 6-7 forward preparing for his sophomore year at Notre Dame in 1990 when it was announced his career was over.

During a routine physical, Williams was found to have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an abnormal thickening of the heart muscle. HCM is the same condition that took the lives of Hank Gathers (Loyola Marymount, 1990) and Reggie Lewis (Boston Celtics, 1993).

But after sitting out two years, Williams was cleared to play in 1992. He played two more seasons at Notre Dame, averaging 22.4 points and 8.2 rebounds as a senior in 1993-94, and wound up playing parts of 10 seasons in the NBA.

After the two-year hiatus, Williams went to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. Doctors “put me through a series of tests,” Williams says. “They found nothing wrong with my heart. God healed me – and I have had no problems since.”

Williams, 35, declined to talk further about his situation, “because I don’t want to hurt LaMarcus’ situation in any way,” he says. “And my (condition) was different than his.”

Williams’ comeback, recalls Forrest Miller, who covered Notre Dame at the time for the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune, “had a lot to do with Monty’s determination. He made up his mind he was not going to sit on the sidelines any longer. I remember (Fighting Irish medical personnel) began carrying a heart defibrillator at practices and games.”

John MacLeod, Williams’ coach the last two seasons at Notre Dame, says after the player “was given the green light, he gave us two great years. It goes to show, a lot of things can be said (by medical experts) that would make someone decide not to play. But Monty wanted to play.”