WASHINGTON — Jerry West knew there was something amiss with his body during his playing days with the Lakers.
He would have to breathe into a paper bag during games to keep from hyperventilating. He couldn’t sleep. His heart sometimes felt out of rhythm.
Years later, he would learn he was suffering from atrial filbrillation, a heart rhythm disturbance.
“An athlete is well aware with what’s going on in his body. I knew there was something wrong,” the Hall of Fame guard said Monday. “I wonder if they tested me now, would they have said I couldn’t have played?”
For the first time, West discussed in detail his five-decade battle with the condition that led him to retire from the Lakers’ front office nine years ago. It’s a disease that disproportionally affects the elderly, but the man whose silhouette graces the NBA logo said he has been dealing with it since his 20s.
“I pretty much have kept it hidden over the years,” West said.
West, who turns 71 this month, told his story at the launch of AF Stat, a national initiative aimed at increasing awareness of the little-understood condition that affects an estimated 2.5 million Americans.
West said sheer adrenaline helped him get through his 14-year playing career in the 1960s and 1970s, and doctors originally thought he was perhaps just one of those people who had a benign extra beat in his heart from time to time.
It was when he left the game for the front office that the symptoms hit him hard.
“It got to the point where I couldn’t even watch the game, if it was a significant game,” said West, who spent 19 years as either the Lakers general manager or executive vice president of basketball operations. “I would go to the movie theater and tape the game. I couldn’t wait to know the score. If we won, I’d watch the game.
“I would have these anxiety, panic attacks, sleepless nights, irritable — all the things associated with this problem. It seemed to manifest itself in me.”
West was diagnosed at age 42 and said he didn’t start getting seriously treated until he was 50. He said he’s never talked much about the condition because there was so little information available about it.
West said his condition was a “huge part” of his decision in 2000 to leave the Lakers. Two years later, West was feeling better, so he came out of retirement to run the Grizzlies for five seasons.
That, he said, was enough.
Not surprisingly, West is predicting the Lakers to beat the Nuggets in the Western Conference finals.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if that would be a tough series,” West said, “but I just think the Lakers are the best team.”
Former forward Grant has Parkinson’s.
Former NBA forward Brian Grant revealed he has Parkinson’s disease and is starting a website devoted to his fight with the neurological disorder.
Grant, 37, told he was diagnosed in January with “young onset Parkinson’s” and began having tremors in his left hand last summer. He consulted two other well- known Parkinson’s suffers, Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali, and quickly implemented several lifestyle changes.
The Associated Press
