Sports Illustrated recently ran a long piece on Brian Grant, the NBA star who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 36. I’ll review the article with the Reader Response Form that we use in our charter school.
- Describe in your own words what happened in the pages you just read. What are the main points?
The article gives an overview of Brian Grant’s entire life, from his hardscrabble childhood, through his glory days as a star performer in the NBA, and ending up where he is now: Age 46, with Parkinson’s, fund raising ventures, and eight children he had with different women.
One of the article’s main points is that Grant wasn’t a naturally talented basketball player. Rather, he succeeded through hard work, persistence, and relentlessly harassing (blocking, racing around) his opponents on the basketball court. According to one of his basketball friends,
“Brian’s advantage is that he’s f—— crazy. He wasn’t blessed with the best jumping ability. Plenty of dudes had more talent, but they didn’t apply themselves like he did. He’d lose himself out there on the court and play with an intensity that forced everyone around him to play like that.”
Grant played so hard and so viciously that he wrecked his body and had to undergo multiple surgeries. Ten surgeries, to be exact, on his knees, shoulder, and a hernia. In a way, this made it harder for him to accept that he had Parkinson’s. Whereas previously he dominated his body and was able to get surgical help for his injuries, suddenly he (like most Parkies) had a disease that he couldn’t do much to control. The tremor in his hand kept coming back, no matter what he did to stop it.
He went through a period of depression, spending all day sitting on his couch, eating sugary breakfast cereal and putting on weight. The article has a good line:
Anyone in Grant’s position faces a choice: Turn inward or face out. Escape the world or engage it.
(That line would make a good opener for any Parkinson’s support discussion group, don’t you think?)
And then he got a phone call. From Michael J. Fox. About “coming out.”
[Fox] counseled Grant on what to expect. The hardest part will be letting go of your vanity, Fox told him, because people will see you differently, and that’s especially difficult when you’ve relied on your body your whole career. So think about what it is—who it is—you want to become next. Because it’s one thing to live with the disease in private and another to do it in front of the world. “If you don’t want to do the advocacy thing, that’s O.K.,” he told Grant. “Because once you step into that arena, you’re in it. There’s no stepping in and stepping out.”
As we all know, Grant went public and in a big way, hosting fundraisers that garnered hundreds of thousands of dollars for PD research, and setting up the Brian Grant Foundation. Now, ten years after his diagnosis, his life goes something like this:
The symptoms remain relatively subtle, at least for now. Grant’s left hand shakes, but if he concentrates hard, he can make it stop for 10 seconds. His left foot drags at times, threatening his coordination. His short-term memory is bad, partly because of the drugs. He’s often tired and is hyperaware of people looking at him. (He tries to remind himself it may be because he’s Brian Grant, not because of the tremors.) Simple tasks—swiping through iPhone photos, signing autographs—can be challenging. Same for unconscious ones, like getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, then coming back in the morning and, as he says with a laugh, “for some reason there’s piss all over the floor.”
“There’s piss all over the floor.” That seems like an odd line to end this summary, but so be it. It’s the truth.
- What’s your reaction to the article?
I was interested in reading Brian’s entire life’s arc – previously I had only known him as a famous person with PD. I remember seeing him onstage at the World Parkinson Congress in Portland. He gave a speech and stood tall at the podium, his hand trembling non-stop. I thought of him as a role model. I’m glad that Sports Illustrated was able to compile this rather complete portrait of him.
- What does the article make you think about from your own life?
Brian’s point that we have to get up off the couch and exercise certainly strikes home for me. I need to exercise more – I know it. When I do, a lot of my symptoms dissipate. I sleep better, feel better, feel more in tune with the rest of society around me, and see a positive future for myself. I almost never sit on our living room couch, but I could spend all day in bed, reading novels and short stories. I could also write much more for my Parking Suns blog.
- Copy a sentence from the article that you find especially interesting or unusual.
Parkinson’s sufferers tend to follow a similar emotional journey. Shock, denial, despair, action, frustration and, finally, a sort of acceptance.
- What makes this sentence interesting for you?
Is this really true? It doesn’t ring true for me. I’d say that in my case, I went straight to acceptance, then into hyper-drive with learning as much as I could about the disease and throwing myself into physical and occupational therapy. I told almost everyone right away.
If you’re reading this and would like to chime in with your own opinion or experience, please do so in the “Comments” section below.
- What questions does the article raise in you? What questions are you left with?
Is the following really true?
…The disease is both everywhere and nowhere, because while 60,000 people are diagnosed every year, and roughly 10 million live with Parkinson’s worldwide, most do their best to hide it. Until they can’t. Then they hide themselves.
Is there evidence to back this last part up (…Then they hide themselves)?
Do I live in a bubble where almost everyone I know who has PD is open about it? It seems melodramatic to say that “10 million live with Parkinson’s worldwide, most do their best to hide it. Until they can’t. Then they hide themselves.”
That doesn’t sound right, so correct me if I’m wrong.
My reaction to my diagnosis was similar to yours, Bruce. I was pleased that my condition had a name, – that it was real and not imagined and that I could do something about it. I set out to learn as much as possible about PD by going to seminars in Australia and overseas. My husband & I have been to two World Parkinson’s Congressses in Montreal and Portland and will attend the WPC in Kyoto next year. In fact I am a Buddy’s co-ordinator for Kyoto.I believe in the benefit of exercise, pedalling on the exercise bike for 45 minutes four days a week, going to Yoga and Balance & Bones. Thursday
There’s no other way I could live my life than to be OK about the new normal. Hence, I blog about it, educate / advocate, and live my life as Dan in spite of it. To put it simply, I’m so far forward with it, I may as well get a tattoo that says, “PARKIE!” Keep up the great work!
“…most do their best to hide it. Until they can’t. Then they hide themselves.”
Unfortunately, I am worried that this will be me. It has been 4 years since my official diagnosis and, other than doctors and others with a need to know, I have told only a few close friends and family members. My sister is my biggest supporter but also the one person who seemed to suddenly assume that I was no longer able to do the things I was doing minutes before I told her. When we travel, she states she will send her husband to help with my luggage when no help is needed. I have asked her to wait until I ask for help, but she hasn’t remembered this request. When my symptoms become more visible, will others also discount my abilities? Will they hesitate to include me in activities, thinking I am no longer able? I expect that I will be self conscious and, therefore, reluctant to go out in public as often. What have others experienced?
Last statement is absolutely true. Not melodramatic, very well stated. Extrapolation would indicate maybe 10,000 people in my area with PD. Attendance at various PD events throughout the year consists of same couple hundred folks.