Adrian Wojnarowski (wojyahoonba) on Twitter via kwout
Chuck Hayes was all set to sign a four-year, $21 million deal with the Sacramento Kings when something went wrong with his physical. We heard rumors of heart issues and suddenly people were worried that a second NBA player would have be sideline with a serious heart condition (Jeff Green will miss the season due to an aortic aneurism).
Yesterday, there were reports of the specific problem.
I am still working for further confirmation, but I have been told by two sources close to the situation that Chuck Hayes failed his physical exam because he was diagnosed with Pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac that surrounds the heart.
Hayes was clearly unhappy with what he’d heard from the doctors he’d seen so far, so he went to the best of the best. The Cleveland Clinic is consistently ranked as the top cardiac center in the United States. So when the doctors there say “he does not have a heart problem,” that tends to carry some weight.
It will be real interesting, however, to see why one set of doctors found a serious heart condition that led to the voiding of his contract while the others did not. And also interesting is that the Kings chose not to reach out to the Cleveland Clinic themselves before voiding the deal, as the Celtics did with Jeff Green.
Still, Hayes reportedly wants to put this all behind him and sign the four-year deal he had signed before. We’ll see if that offer still exists (there’s really no reason it shouldn’t). But the good news here is that, apparently, Hayes can play basketball without worrying about a heart condition.
