Fred Hoiberg can’t believe the irony.
“Getting rejected for life insurance might have saved my life,” the Minnesota guard said five months after a standard insurance exam led to a diagnosis of an enlarged aortic root that led to open-heart surgery that led to the pacemaker now in his chest.
Hoiberg, who is not playing now but hasn’t ruled out a comeback, counts himself lucky in a year in which Atlanta Hawks center Jason Collier and San Francisco 49ers lineman Thomas Herrion died of heart-related ailments.
Because of Hoiberg’s scare, along with those of Los Angeles Lakers Ronny Turiaf and New York Knicks Eddy Curry, who faces the Nuggets tonight, heart disease has become a common topic in NBA circles this fall, involving real-world issues of medical policy and worker privacy. Curry, who missed games at the end of last season with an arrhythmia, was later cleared to play by doctors but refused to take a DNA test when asked by the Chicago Bulls, who then traded him.
Players who were questioned about how much teams should know about their health agreed that with the huge contracts at stake, teams need some leeway in getting a full picture of their players’ health. How much information is up for debate.
“I think the league needs to be informed a little bit about what’s going on, but I understand that it’s confidentiality between a patient and a doctor,” Nuggets center Marcus Camby said.
“If teams have a lot of money invested in us as athletes, they should know what’s really going on. It’s an investment. They’re paying us tons of money.”
Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin went further, saying DNA testing in the dispute that led Chicago to trade Curry to New York should be within bounds.
“Why not? I would want to know if something’s wrong with me,” he said. “If it’s genetics or hereditary, if somebody down the line maybe had it, I don’t know it, I would want to know.”
Hoiberg agreed to an extent, saying, “If there’s a test that can tell me if I had a life-threatening condition, I’d take that test. But I can understand where (Curry is) coming from as well. He’s young. He’s having a chance now to have a great career. He had a great season last year. If he got approved, I’m sure that’s what he wanted to hear. But if you can have something done to tell you if you have a life-threatening condition, I think you should do it.”
Curry resisted taking a DNA test for Bulls management in the offseason, citing an invasion of privacy.
“If employers had such a right, they could require prospective employees to take tests for all sorts of predispositions – to such things as cancer and alcoholism – and then base hiring decisions on the results from such tests,” Curry’s lawyer, Alan Milstein, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Hoiberg said he is unsure about the value of DNA testing, but said he believes an echocardiogram should become standard with a preseason physical at least every other year, if not annually. An EKG detected his condition.
“To have that would take all the guesswork away and just allow for a standard test,” he said.
That sounds logical to Nuggets coach George Karl. “That would make it easier for the teams to have a unified bank of knowledge,” he said.
The Nuggets run an EKG on every player every year, according to trainer Jim Gillen.
But general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said that from a management perspective, unified rules to govern the question might not be practical. “At some point you can’t regulate everything,” he said. “We all trust our doctors.”
Traditionally the NBA has left it up to teams to set their guidelines on physicals.
However, league spokesperson Mark Broussard said the league might survey team doctors to see how similar their practices are, with a possible eye on creating a standardized, league-wide policy.
“It’s something that’s being considered,” Broussard said.
Either way, team executives still could find themselves facing a Catch-22 similar to what Chicago general manager John Paxson faced with Curry, between possibly giving away a burgeoning young talent or risking the life of a player who shouldn’t be on the court.
“People in the organizations care about the players,” Nuggets center Francisco Elson said. “They make a lot of investment. It’s somebody’s life, and they don’t want to have it on their conscience.
“If something does happen, God forbid. It’s a tough decision either way.”
Staff writer Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or athompson@denverpost.com.
