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'I'm glad it's just you,' Malone quipped, 'or I'd have to do something to hurt you.' Just after 2 a.m., Malone, 60, told Murphy he was tired and would see him in the morning. He'd mingled with old friends, including Paul Silas, who'd snuck up from behind and elbowed him in the back - all the better to jar his memory of their battles in the NBA trenches. A three-time MVP center, a 13-time All-Star, Malone was not just NBA royalty, he was also beloved. Malone, who hailed from nearby Petersburg, was a tournament regular each year and had joined fellow NBA alums at the Chrysler Hall in Norfolk on Saturday night for a comedy show. They were expected to tee off at 7:30 in a charity golf tournament. on a Sunday last September, and Murphy's friend and former teammate hadn't shown up for breakfast at the Waterside Marriott in Norfolk, Virginia. The bigger they are, the younger they fall - or so they think. Ask a bunch of NBA big men and the consensus is that their atypical size and the strains placed on their bodies during their careers cause them to deteriorate more quickly and die younger. It's a macabre outlook for Larry Legend - but he's hardly alone in harboring it. I'm not lying awake at night thinking about it. I know there are a few of us who live a long time, but most of us big guys don't seem to last too long. 'I tell my wife all the time, 'You don't see many 7-footers walking around at the age of 75,'' says Bird, who's 6-foot-9. Part of the reason, he admits, was his own fatalistic view of what the future would bring. With proper medication, exercise and diet, atrial fibrillation can be controlled, but Bird abhorred medication and was prone to skipping his pills. Bird, who has an enlarged heart, was diagnosed in 1995 with atrial fibrillation, an abnormal heartbeat resulting from electrical signals being generated chaotically throughout the heart's upper chambers. He finished the game without further incident, avoiding detection from anyone on his staff. Now, as Carlisle diagrammed Indiana's next move against Michael Jordan and the Bulls, Bird wiped the sweat from his brow (and his wrists and neck) and tried to regain his composure. When Bird had been hired in 1997, he'd made the unorthodox decision to entrust assistant Rick Carlisle with drawing up offensive plays in the huddle. Instead, the referees whistled the customary television timeout, allowing Bird to sink into the chair his team dragged onto the court for him during stoppages in play. 'Please don't let me pass out on the court.' 'Oh god,' Bird thought as he tried to steady himself on the Indiana sideline.

When the sudden arrhythmia would occur during his training sessions in his playing days - long before he'd informed any medical personnel about it - he would always lie down immediately and nap for several hours, because if he didn't, he risked losing consciousness.īut on March 17, 1998, the 41-year-old coach of the Eastern Conference-contending Pacers, in the thick of a hotly contested game with the defending champion Bulls, could hardly recline and sleep it off. The waves of nausea and dizziness overtook him next, muddling his concentration and leaving him feeling light-headed. He wondered if anyone noticed him sweating profusely, his shirt drenched under his suit and tie, an all-too-familiar symptom whenever his heart started rattling around his chest like a basketball in an empty trash barrel. INDIANA PACERS COACH Larry Bird wasn't even sure which play his team was running because his damn heart was kicking out again. This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Feb.

Find a light source die young game upgrade#

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