There have been a plethora of articles today saying Willie Cauley-Stein looked out of shape during a recent Sacramento Kings practice.
That had me thinking about a Willie interview where he spoke about a sickle cell problem back in 2013.
Here is the article from the Courier-Journal:
Despite his monster defensive performance in last night’s win over Boise State – nine blocks to go with seven rebounds and six points – Kentucky center Willie Cauley-Stein looked seriously winded at times, doubled over on occasion, and played just 25 minutes even though he was never in foul trouble. Afterward, he raised some eyebrows with this revelation:
“I was having a little sickle-cell problem and my chest was starting to hurt, so I had to keep on telling myself, ‘In and out.’ So I wasn’t going to be able to play the minutes that I normally play, but I just tried to go as hard as I could when I could and come out whenever I felt fatigued.”
So what does he mean by “sickle-cell problem”? Does he have sickle cell anemia?
“I have the sickle cell trait,” Cauley-Stein said, noting he’s not on any medication. “So some days it’s just randomly where I’ll have like real bad chest pain and I can’t like breathe and my heart rate won’t come down, so I gotta stop and wait for it to come down.”
My guess, Willie was having a bad day with this ailment when he was reportedly noticeably winded which led to being “out of shape.”
What do you think?
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