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Whitmore, only 21 years old, said he nearly lost much more than his NBA career. “That was a life-threatening type of illness I had,” he said. “I’m just grateful to be alive, to be honest, and to be alive and talk to my family and talk to you guys and be around my teammates.”
Whitmore was first listed as out due to right shoulder soreness while doctors worked towards a diagnosis. As Whitmore explained to Miller, the problem was caused by his ribs restricting blood flow to his right arm. That led to a blood clot, which caused him to wake up with discomfort in his shoulder. A few more days would pass before Whitmore airballed a series of midrange shots at shootaround in Memphis on Dec. 20. “I knew something was wrong,” Whitmore said. The symptoms worsened as Whitmore made several trips to the hospital before the blood clot was found on an ultrasound. He then had three surgical procedures before he was on the road to recovery. As Whitmore tells it, he’s “fine now” but only after a long and difficult process. His parents were integral in helping him get through it, as they took shifts to be by his side during his hospital stints.
Whitmore also felt immense support from his teammates and others in the Wizards organization. “[Before] going into surgery, I got videos from like each and everybody separately. Even in the group chats they were wishing me a healthy recovery and a successful surgery. Some teammates came to visit me in the hospital, coaches, coaching staff, even the front office. So, everybody was there. I felt love from afar even when I wasn’t in the building, but when I came back everybody welcomed me with open arms so I was really grateful for that,” he said.
“The first thing is, he was slow to get up,” Nowinski said. “It was hard to tell if he was unconscious or not. There was a brief period of time he didn’t move, but he was clearly not feeling right. And I noticed he lost his balance when he first moved, which is another sign of a concussion, and a suggestion that this was a pretty serious injury.”
Nowinski cautions about rushing him back too soon. According to Nowinski, the 48-hour window isn’t necessarily a well-known marker in the latest neurological science, but rather more of a cautionary reflection of the NBA’s typical “every-other-day” game schedule. For example, the NFL doesn’t have a set time span in its revamped policy; instead, the league instituted a five-step return-to-play protocol that every concussed athlete must pass. “NBA players often return to full participation faster than we see, for example, in the NFL,” Nowinski said. “That’s in part because most NFL games are a week apart, and so they have a more gradual return to play. The league protocols are designed to fit the game schedule rather than necessarily what we think about in terms of managing long-term risks.”
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Veteran ESPN broadcaster Dick Vitale is confronting his fifth battle with cancer, having revealed on Monday that biopsy results confirmed a diagnosis of melanoma in his lung and liver cavity. The 86-year-old is set to begin immunotherapy as he faces this latest health challenge. Mr Vitale, known affectionately as "Dickie V", expressed his unwavering confidence in a statement released by ESPN. "I've beaten melanoma," he declared. "I've beaten lymphoma. I've beaten vocal-cord cancer. I've beaten lymph-node cancer. I'm four for four and I'm fully confident I'm going to make it five for five." Separately, Mr Vitale shared on social media that he had undergone ten days of extensive testing, including scans, MRIs, bloodwork, and a biopsy. He admitted, "I obviously did not get the report today that I was hoping for when my oncologist called," but affirmed his intention to "win the battle," adding: "Now at least I know what I face." His previous health battles had led to a two-year absence from the airwaves, though he made a return shortly before March Madness in 2025.
Still, Vitale said in his ESPN statement that he feels “fantastic." And he quickly turned the focus of his statement to his long-running efforts to raise money for pediatric cancer research, notably with next month’s annual gala in his name that has raised more than $105 million in its two-decade history. “At 86 years young, I've lived a hell of a life, and I'm more motivated than ever to raise money for kids battling cancer,” Vitale said, adding that he hopes to raise $12 million with the 21st “Dick Vitale Gala” set for May 1 in Sarasota, Florida.
Pandya: “Grade 2 is a blanket term for a partial tear. But there are a lot of degrees of severity in that. A partial tear that occurs lower down in the leg may not involve much of the muscle and doesn’t have as much inflammation. So best-case scenario could be this is like Aaron Gordon’s injury last year [played in Game 7 in second round vs Oklahoma City after suffering Grade 2 left hamstring strain in Game 6]. But a Grade 2 strain that is higher up near the pelvis, that has a lot more inflammation and involves more muscles. There, you’re potentially looking at a six-week injury. Luka had injured this hamstring earlier in the season, and that’s another concern. We did a study looking at this that said that 80% of players that have a hamstring injury get another injury at some point. So maybe he comes back from his hamstring injury, but does he hurt his calf or hurt his knee?
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The Utah Jazz are waiving center Mo Bamba before the end of his 10-day contract and signing another player for their upcoming road trip. Bamba contracted an illness that prevented him from traveling with the team to Portland, Sacramento and Minnesota over the next week. His 10-day contract would have run out over that time, meaning the Jazz had to move on.
You haven’t heard much this NBA season about Strus, 29, because he hasn’t played. He is still fighting his way back from offseason surgery to repair a fracture in his left foot, and after months of waiting he is nearing a return that could happen within the next week. In the middle of last season — his second with the Cavs — Strus, along with his sister Maggie Sommer and best friend Jake Wimmer, formally launched the Max Strus Family Foundation. The foundation operates with a volunteer board, raises most of its money through camp registrations and a bowling fundraiser in Cleveland, and directs grants to youth sports programs, cancer organizations and mental health nonprofits in the cities Strus has lived in. The foundation is small — it distributed about $160,000 in 2025 — by design. Strus wants to know the people he’s able to help.
“I don’t want to be somebody or our foundation as a whole doesn’t want to be a group that’s just like handing out money and you don’t hear from us again,” Strus said. “We want to be in it for the long run. Like we want to create relationships. We want to be impactful on people’s lives and be there as support.” When Strus was just making his way in the NBA with the Miami Heat, his coach Erik Spoelstra’s son went through a serious health scare. Spoelstra remembers Strus knocking on his office door. “When my son was sick, he stopped by my office,” Spoelstra said. “A lot of people just feel awkward. They don’t know what to say. He just wanted to offer support. And also said, ‘Hey, if you’re doing anything, I want to be part of it.’”
Spoelstra said the gesture didn’t surprise him. “You can see that Max just naturally thinks about other people,” he said. “So the fact that he’s doing this kind of work is not at all surprising.”
