Knicks' Trade Will Depend on How the Test Blips Go
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/sports/basketball/06knicks.html?pagewanted=2
By HOWARD BECK
Published: October 6, 2005

CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 5 - Somewhere in Manhattan, the fate of the Knicks, and one young man's career, is being determined by echocardiogram readings and a string of people wearing white lab coats.

Eddy Curry has been put through two days of sophisticated medical tests to determine the strength and soundness of his heart. If everything checks out to the satisfaction of team doctors, Curry will become the Knicks' new starting center, giving new hope to a flagging franchise.

If, however, doctors find that Curry is at risk for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that has caused the death of other athletes, the Knicks could cancel their trade with the Chicago Bulls.

Hanging in the balance are Curry's well-being and the Knicks' ability to climb out of the depths of the Eastern Conference.

While Coach Larry Brown put his players through a second day of workouts at the College of Charleston, team officials waited anxiously for a result.

As of Wednesday evening, Curry's results were not available, and the Knicks offered no new information about his status. But Curry and Antonio Davis, who was acquired in the deal with the Bulls, arrived here Wednesday night. The Knicks hope they will be able to practice Thursday.

If Curry is cleared to play, the Knicks will open the season as a transformed team, one that could deliver the franchise its first playoff victory since 2001.

Since April, when the Knicks concluded a woeful 33-victory season, the team has added a Hall of Fame coach, Larry Brown; a first-rate shooter, Quentin Richardson; and four big men who will solidify the frontcourt.

The 22-year-old Curry is the best of the group, a 6-foot-11, 285-pound center with remarkable agility, a true post game and room to improve. He is regarded as a potential All-Star, and as a scorer he is already among the top five centers in the N.B.A.

After finishing last season with two undersized power forwards in the front court - the 6-8 Mike Sweetney and the 6-9 Kurt Thomas - the Knicks now have a wealth of capable big men. They signed center Jerome James (7-1), drafted center-forward Channing Frye (6-11) and acquired Curry and Davis (6-9). Also in the mix are the returning veterans Maurice Taylor and Malik Rose and the rookie David Lee.

"Looking around the league, I don't know if anybody has any more depth," said Brown, who coached one of the league's best frontcourts in Detroit the last two seasons.

Brown listed Detroit, Miami and Indiana as the teams with the best big men in the conference, "but we have depth and size," he said.

Brown all but ruled out playing Curry and James together. So James will become a $30 million backup to Curry, who has a $60 million contract. All told, the Knicks have invested $106 million to bolster their frontcourt.

Yet all those efforts could be negated if Knicks doctors determine that Curry's life is at risk, as the Bulls believed it might be.

It was not clear how the Knicks will determine Curry's fitness, or put to rest the concerns of some experts. Team officials have offered no details and have no plans to release any information once the tests are complete.

At least one expert has recommended that Curry have DNA testing to determine his risk for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Curry's refusal prompted the Bulls to trade him, and the Knicks will not ask Curry to take the test.

Instead, the Knicks are relying on other methods, and a team of at least a half-dozen specialists. Curry has probably been through many of the tests before, after he was found to have an irregular heartbeat in April.

Tests showed an enlargement of Curry's heart, which can indicate hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. But no definitive diagnosis has been made.

"The nonsustained ventricular tachycardia," or irregular heartbeat, "is reason for concern," said Craig Asher, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, Fla., who sits on the advisory committee for the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association. "That is not a normal finding in a young athlete."

Dr. David Cannom, the director of cardiology at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, cleared Curry to play in June. He has said a DNA test is not necessary. In an interview last week, Curry's lawyer, Alan Milstein, relayed Cannon's opinion that Curry's heart was not abnormally enlarged for an athlete of his size.

According to two leading doctors in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and the director of the Athletes' Heart Program at Hartford Hospital, the echocardiogram is the central test to determine whether Curry has the potentially life-threatening condition. A full range of tests could take at least two days.

The three doctors spoke in general about the disease since they are not privy to the details of Curry's condition.

Asher said that after taking a full patient and family history, the echocardiogram, or EKG, "is really the hallmark for diagnosing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Asher said the test is looking for the presence of an enlarged heart or abnormal filling of the heart. A stress echochardiogram could also be administered. It is possible that Curry could be attached to a mobile EKG monitor for a period of 24 hours to determine the rhythms of his heart.

Steve Ommen, director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, said that a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging exam could be administered to determine how enlarged the heart is and to see whether there is scarring in the heart.

A test that inserts a catheter into the patient's heart to stimulate it - electrophysiology - could also be a possible procedure to determine an athlete's condition.

The DNA test was recommended by Dr. Barry Maron, the director of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.

"It's the last resort, in part because it has the least longevity in the field," Ommen said. "It is not a perfect test because of this issue, it can only rule you in that you have the disease. There is no way to prove that he's normal."

Paul Thompson, the director of the Athletes' Heart Program, added, "Most times you can make up your mind without a genetic test.

"Suppose he takes the test and it's positive, then you're pretty certain he has it," Thompson said. "Suppose he takes the test, and it's negative. I don't see how he really wins. It would only give another nail in the 'not-competing' coffin.

"Oftentimes, those tests help the physician," he said.

But Thompson countered about how it could help a team: "If it's positive, that gives them one more piece of information. It may make the Knicks reconsider."

REBOUNDS

Although the Chicago Bulls had asked that Antonio Davis be waived so they could re-sign him, the Knicks did not agree to do so. Although Davis wanted to stay in Chicago, the Knicks prefer to keep him. Larry Brown coached Davis in Indiana and wants to persuade him to stay. But there is still the possibility that Davis will ask to be cut. ... Quentin Richardson and Jerome James were held out of the Wednesday night practice after each strained a hamstring in the morning session.

[Edited by - crzymdups on 10-06-2005 01:13 AM]

Q and JJ are hurt?

btw, Note to Beck:

Asher said that after taking a full patient and family history, the echocardiogram, or EKG, "is really the hallmark for diagnosing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

An EKG is an electrocardiogram, not an echocardiogram.

here's what I dont get. He's been through all this before. Remember Eddie's HAD to have gone through everyone of these tests when they first found the condition. Since then he has been cleared to play.

God... would this just end