Reynolds - Brown Sidelined for the rest of the season

[Rusty 54]

http://www.bradleyhoops.com/news/x1868080040/BUs-Brown-sidelined-for-the-rest-of-the-season?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

"Taylor Brown is still at least two weeks away from knowing whether he has a basketball future.

But one thing is for certain right now: the 6-foot-6 Bradley forward will not be returning to the court this season.

When Brown was shut down on the eve of the season opener in November to decondition his heart for three months, his hope was to come back and help the Braves during the stretch run of the season in February. Some Bradley fans, frustrated by this discouraging campaign, have clung to that thought as well.

BU coach Jim Les, though, has already nixed the notion.

“I won’t allow him to come back,” Les said this week. “He has done nothing for three months. Absolutely nothing. He hasn’t jogged on the treadmill. He hasn’t lifted a weight. He’ll shoot a little bit at the end of practice."

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

???I won??™t allow him to come back,??? Les said this week. ???He has done nothing for three months. Absolutely nothing. He hasn??™t jogged on the treadmill. He hasn??™t lifted a weight. He??™ll shoot a little bit at the end of practice."

Wasn't he cleared to lift a few weeks ago? Some information seems off. This news isn't much of a surprise to me.

Hopefully he will be cleared in a couple weeks and can play next year.

[AZ BU Fan]

Bummer for TB....Good luck whichever way his career and life take him.

[Da Coach]

Jim Les deserves a little credit here. He knows his job is on the line, and that theoretically, TB could try to make a return this season if cleared by doctors in February. Jim is not thinking of his own future, but TB's.

[Braves4Life]

Les has always been a class act and an outstanding representative of all things BU. We couldn't ask for a better coach in that regard.

[Missouri Brave]

Agree 100 pct with Da Coach here. Classy move - and the correct one - by JL.

On a related note with TB, something really struck me in this article -- a maturity that perhaps we haven't seen from him in the past. Taylor Brown with his head on straight, in my opinion, is the best player in the MVC. Like TB seems to think, this whole episode could turn into a blessing in disguise.

Could be a big year on the Hilltop for this young man in 2011-12....

[Buesch N Chips]

Does anyone have an idea on the probability of his return? We obviously know nothing specific, but in general with this type of disorder, are most people able to return, or are most people permanently sidelined?

[Lakeview Brave]

Does anyone have an idea on the probability of his return? We obviously know nothing specific, but in general with this type of disorder, are most people able to return, or are most people permanently sidelined?

Eddie Curry had the same thing. I dont think they know for sure that he has anything yet the testing takes place as his heart muscle gets smaller. From my understanding if it returns to normal size then he should have no problem coming back but we have doctors on the board who can elaborate.

[amettrick]

It all just depends on what they find in the test results next month. If he is indeed found to have the same condition that Bradley baseball player Phil Kaiser had, then in all likelyhood, it would mean the end of his career. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in athletes and strenuous activity greatly increases the risk.

Lets hope its found he doesn't have this.

[Da Coach]

It all just depends on what they find in the test results next month. If he is indeed found to have the same condition that Bradley baseball player Phil Kaiser had, then in all likelyhood, it would mean the end of his career. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in athletes and strenuous activity greatly increases the risk.

Lets hope its found he doesn't have this.

Correct. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a rare disease that results in the heart muscle thickening and hardening, and eventually it can pinch and cut off the blood flow through the coronaries. Death can occur from a heart attack from blockage of the artery, or from a type of irreversable rhythm disturbance called ventricular fibrillation.
Sometimes the heart of a highly conditioned athlete can appear similar to that of the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. There are a couple ways to diagnose further, but the simplest way is to decondition the heart and re-evaluate. Let's all hope the re-evaluation of TB looks OK. It is a very serious condition associated with a short life expectancy, and some people eventually will need to undergo special procedures like implanting a defibrillator, coronary artery stenting, or even heart transplant.

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

Eddie Curry had the same thing. I dont think they know for sure that he has anything yet the testing takes place as his heart muscle gets smaller. From my understanding if it returns to normal size then he should have no problem coming back but we have doctors on the board who can elaborate.

Eddy Curry's issues were not similar.

http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title=Eddy_Curry

"Cardiac Problems

Several prominent cardiologists cleared Curry to play, but Barry Maron, a world-renowned specialist in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, suggested the DNA test. During the team's media day, Bulls General Manager John Paxson said he understood the privacy issues involved but insisted the Bulls did not have an ulterior motive; they simply do not want a situation similar to those of former Boston Celtics guard Reggie Lewis or Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers -- players with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who collapsed and died. Paxson told reporters the Bulls had offered Curry $400,000 annually for the next fifty years if he failed the genetic test.

The test that Eddy Curry was required to take is called Predictive DNA Testing. It has an approximately 10% efficiency at detecting DNA irregularities which may signal the chance of a person developing a specific condition. The practice is illegal in 40 states. Such testing does not reveal the presence of a condition but rather seeks out irregularities which can be used to determine if a person may be susceptible to developing a specific condition. It is far from an established science and has also been known to produce as many false positives as true positives.

From the standpoint of an NBA player, if the test produced a false positive which you would be unable to determine until decades down the road when you would know whether or not the person actually did or did not develop the disease, you may have just ended the career of a pro player based entirely on a test that has a 10% efficiency.

In the end, even the very doctor that suggested the DNA test cleared Eddy Curry to resume playing, merely suggesting Curry take the test; he never actually demanded it. It has been suggested that the episodes he suffered could have been the result of a poor diet Curry was following in an effort to lose weight, as stipulated by the Bulls in order to obtain a new ??” and larger ??” contract. There is speculation Curry may have used ephedra to enhance his weight loss, which could potentially have compounded the situation. "

[SaintLouBrave22]

Jim Les deserves a little credit here. He knows his job is on the line, and that theoretically, TB could try to make a return this season if cleared by doctors in February. Jim is not thinking of his own future, but TB's.

I agree that this is showing class and putting Taylors future in or out of basketball first BUT I don't think if he came back would have anything to do with them keeping Les....


Its all about the money and everyone should know that at this point...


Besides, I can't recall anyone here saying that Jim isn't a great guy or a class act...off the court he carries the brand very well...


But so did Barry Hinson...

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

Besides, I can't recall anyone here saying that Jim isn't a great guy or a class act...off the court he carries the brand very well...

He's a gym rat, not a class act. Please correct your announcer code words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OjF_At3BKQ

[wily coyote]

Jim Les deserves a little credit here. He knows his job is on the line, and that theoretically, TB could try to make a return this season if cleared by doctors in February. Jim is not thinking of his own future, but TB's.

I agree kudos to JL for making this decision. It's the right thing to do. A life is more important then a game. Wish TB all the best and hope he can return next year.

[BradleyBrave]

For the doctors on the board - Is this similar at all to Nick Knapp's heart issues of about a decade ago?

For those who don't know, Knick Knapp was a star basketball player at Woodruff who had accepted a full ride scholarship offer to play at Northwestern (along with Pekin's Matt Moran). Over the summer prior to heading to Northwestern, Knapp collapsed while playing open gym in Peoria, and luckily was able to be resuscitated and taken to the hospital. His condition was diagnosed, and I believe he had a pacemaker or some instrument inserted to shock his heart back into rhythm if necessary. Unfortunately for Nick, Northwestern rescinded his scholarship, and he ended up playing basketball at Northeastern Illinois University in their final days of intercollegiate athletics (the school folded its entire athletic program in 1998 ).