LaMarcus Aldridge couldn't sleep at night.
It was April, and after the game against the Lakers, he didn't feel well all night. Ade did not reveal to anyone that he insisted on playing despite his abnormal heart rate. Now, with his family back in Texas, he's sitting alone in his Brooklyn apartment, his heart beating faster.
Ard is no stranger to heart problems. In 2007, during his rookie season, he was diagnosed with Wolf Parkinson's-White syndrome, a condition that causes rapid heartbeat. To keep this privileged job, he underwent multiple surgeries and hired a team of doctors from all over the country. They conducted a case study of his heart and devised a protocol for him to use when he was in trouble. All of these techniques are designed to speed up his heart rate and then get it back to normal. But on that night against the Lakers, for the first time since he was diagnosed, the techniques became useless.
"Once you reach a higher frequency, you shouldn't feel anything." Ade explained to him last week, "I'm competing with the best people in the world at a high jump rate, but I still have an irregular heart rate. That was the biggest trigger for an adverse reaction to my heart. ”
He felt tension in his chest. His heart rate fluctuated irregularly from fast to slow, something he had never experienced before. Such worries kept him up all night.
Ade said: "It's like all the research is in vain in one game because I've never been in a position like this before. He ended up texting the Nets doctor before entering the hospital.
Over the next few days, Ade sought multiple opinions, which also led directly to that sudden decision. After the star-studded Nets played just five games, he announced his retirement.
But throughout the summer, after multiple rounds of testing without any problems, the 36-year-old Ard began to think about returning. He heard all the reasons for him to go on with retirement. Over the course of his career, he's made more than $200 million; he's a seven-time All-Star, and he's already a hall of fame candidate. However, he returned to the Nets in September, in part to prove he still aspires to an elusive title. So far, he has stuck to this view. In 19 games, Ade averaged 13.8 points per game and shot 58 percent from the field. He filled the void left by Kyrie Owen. When Ader's score reached double digits, the Nets' record was 11-2.
This return is not only heartwarming, it is also crucial for a team that is eager to win the title.
"He's a miracle," Ard's old friend Kevin Durant recently said.
Kevin Durant was the key reason Aldridge came to the Nets. (David Butler II/USA Today)
The night he thought his career was over, Ade remembered the advice he had received from his doctor. He tried to raise his heart rate. But when all was to no avail, he turned to a familiar face and took unusual measures.
During the timeout, Ard repeatedly warmed up against former Nets assistant coach Uduka. "I need to move," Ade told Uduka, who is now the Celtics coach. "I have to move." The two were former Portland teammates and met again in San Antonio. Uduka knew Ade and his heart problems well, although he didn't realize the seriousness of the situation until much later. Although the shoulder block technique did not work, Ade continued to play. He scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting against the Lakers. He then blamed himself for the fiasco.
"Tonight was hard for me," Adler said after the game, "but there are no excuses." ”
After a sleepless night, Ade began to wonder what would happen next. Nets general manager Sean Max suggested that Ade use the Holt Electrocardiogram Monitor, an instrument that can record the electrical activity of the heart. Max wanted him to wear it when he played on the pitch so that doctors could more clearly understand what was being sent. But psychologically, Ade couldn't do it.
In late March, when he signed with the Nets in hopes of fighting for the championship again in the final stages of his career, Ard saw an opportunity. But after he had a heart attack on the Lakers, he was just afraid it would happen again.
The partnership with the Nets seems ideal. Ade has too many ties to this team. He worked with Max for many years, and Max was his teammate during his time as a Trail Blazers, and then Sean joined the Spurs management. So Max was one of the reasons Ade decided to sign with Brooklyn, and so was Durant. Both have played at the University of Texas, though not in the same year, and they have both finished in the draft for two consecutive years. It was because of Ard's personal recruitment that KD chose to visit the University of Texas at Austin. Years later, their roles were swapped, and Durant recruited Ader to join the Nets. "You have to come here," Durant said. After five years of Spurs career, Ade chose to part ways with them, and KD was the first person to dial Ade's phone. Although the continuation of the frontier means a lot, the good times are not long, and the fate is finally on the verge of ending.
The Nets suggested Ade leave the team for a break, but he didn't want to be the object of their distraction during an anticipatory season. Max told Ade that management would fully respect his ideas to make decisions.
A few months after retiring, Ade told him: "I could have taken some time to go home and wait for this to end, but I felt like I couldn't hang on to them like this anymore, and I didn't want them to think about it in my own mind anymore – whether he would come back or not". "So I feel like it's the neatest thing I can mentally do for myself, and for the people here, just leave." They knew I was finished. When things happen, I don't have them in their heads, and I have time to figure it out on my own. ”
On April 15, Ade announced his retirement on Twitter, shocking the basketball world. He is only 49 points away from becoming the 48th player in NBA history to score 20,000 points. When Durant got the news the night before, he was stunned. He called it "the worst outcome I can imagine." He lamented that his friend had been forced to leave when he was about to pass a special milestone.
When Harden heard the news, the topic returned to that decisive night against the Lakers.
"Do you remember me telling you I couldn't use my body freely?" Ard asked him.
"Yes," Harden replied. "I thought you were referring to rhythm, like shooting?"
"No, I mean the heart."
"Dude, I don't know this."
Aldridge's retirement statement.
After announcing his retirement, Ade received support from the basketball community. Nets forward Jeff Green was quick to defend the decision. He said health first, he had heart surgery in 2012. Ader's former coaches have all reached out to him with active concern, including Rick Barnes, who coached him in Texas, and Greg Popovich, who has coached him in Texas.
A native of Dallas, Ard returned to Texas and began to learn about everyday life. He dabbled in real estate and commercial stocks and made an appearance on NBA TV. Ard admits that watching Durant take Brooklyn to the division finals just an inch away from the division finals is really hard for him to watch in front of the screen. He tried to find himself out of his basketball life, an experience frustrating. For Ade, the world is changing so fast. He was already signed and could have gone after a championship title, but a month later, his new goal became to stay fit without an abnormal spike in heart rate.
The doctors monitored Ade's exercise. Over time, their intensity increases. When no new problems arose, his confidence began to grow. While his medical team has never determined the exact cause of the heart attack behind the game against the Lakers, it seems possible to play again. Ade said: "After being on the pitch for so long, exercising so much, all the monitors are staring at me, I see everything is fine and I think that's the most important thing for me, to let myself go through a crazy hard training and see that everything is fine. ”
Ade began to seriously discuss the return. Two people opposed him. The first was his agent, Jeff Schwartz, who encouraged Ade to spend more time before making such a big decision. Another obstacle came from Max. "You don't need that," the Nets general manager told his former teammates. "Why are you coming back?"
Ard spoke about the tests he had experienced, and how he felt. He also mentioned "uncontested causes." Ard still believes he can help the Nets win the championship. Max thought the call was a test. He doesn't want to know only about Ade's physical condition, he also needs to understand his motives. At the end of the conversation, Max heard the answer he wanted.
Max said: "I think it's important to see this belief. ”
The path back from retirement is as complicated as the heart's complex connections in all organs. He must be approved by the Union doctors. When he turned to Max for help to reunite, the Nets sent in their own doctor. But as those hurdles cleared, Ader returned to the only attractive team that would allow him to make a comeback from his retirement life. Clearly, the road back is fraught with problems.
"I felt like I went through a five-month All-Star Weekend and when I came back, it seemed like the second half of the season, but obviously not."
Steve Nash admits he doesn't know how much to expect from Ader's return, but it didn't take long for the coaching staff to take it all. In his second game of the season, Ade scored 23 points on 10-of-12 shooting on the bench to help the team narrowly win against the 76ers, and he saved his best performance for the decisive fourth quarter. Ade hit all five shots, including a last-minute dunk that tied the score and a free throw that gave the Nets a lead.
The frustration of retirement has been replaced by excitement. He was here, playing only two games, hitting a crucial blow in a match that was evenly matched and ultimately helped the team to victory. That's exactly what Ade wanted to see when he first signed with the Nets. Six months after that heart-pounding experience, he was back here. "Let's build on that," Ard told himself after what he called "my 'I'm back' moment," and he did. A week later, Ard scored another 21 points in his win against Indiana.
Ade has been on the bench at the start of the season. Although he didn't start, he had developed the habit of finishing off. Earlier this month, in an understaffed Nets game against the Magic, he hit two hooks in the last minute to secure victory. After Harden was delayed by a pinch, Ader was given a decisive shooting opportunity. "He was looking for a chance to catch the ball," Harden said, "so I fed him the ball calmly and he made the right decision to help us bring the victory home." ”
Ade is not only efficient, he is very efficient. He averaged just 22.1 minutes per game as Nash wanted him to stay alive. He shot 61 percent from mid-range, one of the best in the NBA.
Nash initially preferred to have Ader come off the bench, but has recently been placed in the starting lineup against the Celtics and Suns. Ader had 17 points and nine rebounds in his win over Boston, his first start since playing against the Lakers in April, a night he thought his career was over.
For Ade, the possibility of his heart rate becoming irregular again remains, though he insists he does not live in fear. If something happened, he trusted the medical staff to be able to fix it. "You can't think that way," he said. "I didn't even think about it."
The fact that basketball was so abruptly taken from his hands made him refocus his life, and he often talked about appreciation. "I'm trying to immerse myself more in these moments and enjoy more camaraderie," Ard said. ”
Aldridge's twenty thousand moments
That was fully reflected in the game against the Pacers. During a timeout, Ade stood in the crowd and realized he was on the verge of completing another unselected career. He was just one shot away from 20,000 points, a milestone that at one point seemed out of reach. In the crowd, Durant made a request: "I want to pass the ball to you."
Things didn't go as expected. The opposing defense gave Durant enough pressure to force him to give up the ball prematurely. So Ade improvised a tactic without KD's involvement. He set up a cover, then received a pass from his teammates, and then he reinterpreted the middle distance art that belonged to his personal patent, and a new historical record was born.
When he finished the performance of this chapter, Ard smiled and walked toward KD.
Keep the clouds open to see the moon, this shot and this smile, we have been waiting for six months. It's great to see you again, LaMarcus Al Mid-Range.