“My Mom Was All Shook”: Ex-Spurs Star Reflects on How Overcoming Scary Heart Diagnosis Made “Symptoms Worse”, Ending His NBA Career Twice

LaMarcus Aldridge recently talked about his heart condition, which caused complications for him throughout his career. During his rookie year in 2006-07, he was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Since then, till 2022, he played through the issue and retired twice.

Aldridge revealed how his problem went from bad to worse as he tried to continue playing at the highest level. In addition to that, he also reflected on the reaction from his family upon learning about his heart issue.

LaMarcus Aldridge’s battle with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome

Aldridge first found out about his condition in 2007 when he was a rookie with the Portland Trail Blazers. After learning about it in April of 2007, he missed several games for the rest of the season for his team. However, he was cleared by the medical teams and picked up on his career the following season. The problem was that he still had the syndrome and had to operate around it while playing in the league. During the recent conversation on All The Smoke podcast, he recalled feeling like he was about to die but still summoning the strength to somehow push through it.

He said, “The whole thing with my heart is if I’m out of rhythm or I’m about to pass out if you run, your s**t’s supposed to straighten up, so then you’re good to go. It was the first time I was running and my stuff wouldn’t straighten up. It was still going slow.”

He said that not worrying about something too much is a product of his humble beginnings. Because of that, even when he was not feeling well at all, his thought process was to just push through the night instead of calling for help.

He said, “I go home that night, laying down, and my s**t was getting so slow, I just kept passing out. … So, the whole night I’m laying there thinking I’m about to die. So, I called the trainer, like 6 a.m., ‘I can’t take it no more,’ and go to the hospital.” Aldridge said that “my mom was all shook” upon learning about his condition.

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Aldridge announced his retirement for the first time on April 15th, 2021. Later in September the 7x All-Star came back to the league, re-signing with the Brooklyn Nets. On March 31st, 2023, he announced his retirement for the second time at the age of 37.

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