Basketball writer Henry Abbott offers helpful perspective on Bronny James
In the wake of Bronny James’ health scare, people across the country are wondering if sudden-cardiac incidents are a relatively new thing. Has this happened the past three years, or does it have much deeper historical roots?
Basketball writer Henry Abbott provided a lot of research and perspective in an article everyone should read. Look at some of the statistics Abbott provided on the risks of playing Division I basketball compared to D-I football or cross country.
(h/t Henry Abbott)
“That same study found that the chances of a Black male Division I NCAA basketball player dying from sudden cardiac arrest are one in 3,126. That’s disturbingly common—closer, by the numbers, to cracking open a double-yolked egg than dying in a shark attack. Gender, race, and division all matter, too. The risk to Black college basketball players in general is nearly four times higher than the risk to white ballers, but “the highest-risk group of athletes regardless of ethnicity were Division I male basketball athletes.”
“Other sports have totally different numbers: In NCAA football, it’s one in 38,497; in cross-country, it’s one in 59,484.
“These kinds of numbers are why, in 2006, following the death of 28-year-old Hawks center Jason Collier, the NBA instituted the most rigorous cardiac screenings in professional sports. Those tests have excluded players, including, famously, Baylor’s Isaiah Austin.
“There are many ways performance-enhancing drugs can hasten death. That statistic above, about increasing the odds of death up to 20 times, is only about steroids—but one flower in the PED bouquet.”
You can find Henry Abbott on Twitter.
