Lauri Markkanen’s season ended Wednesday when the
Bulls announced after their 118-98 loss to the Trail Blazers that the second-year forward experienced a rapid heart rate and fatigue on Tuesday.
Markkanen spent Tuesday night in Toronto after undergoing medical tests for the episode that sidelined him for the second half of the loss to the Raptors. He returned to Chicago on Wednesday for further testing that also checked out normal.
But given that the episode involved Markkanen’s heart, the team plans additional testing over the next 10-14 days. One likely scenario would be Markkanen wearing a heart monitor during supervised workouts over the coming days.
“The long-term health of our players is always our organization’s top priority,” executive vice president John Paxson said in a statement. “We will continue to monitor Lauri’s condition and work with our medical staff and doctors to provide him with everything he may need.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, Markkanen told people he planned to work out individually on Thursday. Whether the Bulls, who have an off day scheduled, will allow that is unknown. Either way, Markkanen will almost certainly wear a heart monitor whenever his next workout occurs.
There’s considerable optimism that Markkanen’s incident was an isolated episode.
“Everything that he has had done to him in the last 24 hours has come back positive. I think the word is ‘unremarkable,’” coach Jim Boylen said. “But speaking with John and Jerry and Michael (Reinsdorf), we just want to do what’s best for him. We’re going to be as cautious as we can. And we’re not going to rush him back.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed for him and for us. But we’re hopeful he’ll be just fine.”
Markkanen played 54 minutes during the epic, four-overtime victory over the
Hawks in Atlanta on March 1. He had to come out for a brief rest during one of the overtimes and afterward revealed he didn’t feel well.
“I felt a little weird. I don’t know what it was,” Markkanen said that night. “I wouldn’t say I had the flu, but something was bothering me in the first half. I kind of felt my heart rate getting up real quick, so I’m glad he took me out and got me back in a little later.
“I’m exhausted. You gotta fight through it. I know that first half I definitely didn’t feel my best, but I knew I had to pick it up. We were joking that
NBA stands for ‘No Boys Allowed’, so you got to man up and play the game. When I put my jersey on, it doesn’t matter how you feel. You’ve got to perform. And that’s what I did.”
