Lakers' Horry Leaves Hospital

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 14, 1999 / 7:51 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Los Angeles Lakers forward Robert Horry was discharged Monday after being hospitalized nearly 24 hours for an irregular heartbeat, and might play Tuesday night against the Charlotte Hornets.

Horry, 28, was taken to Centinela Hospital Medical Center due to chest pains shortly before the start of Sunday's game against the Indiana Pacers.

"They monitored his heart all night, did a series of tests yesterday and this morning," team spokesman John Black said at Monday's practice at Los Angeles Southwest College. "All tests came back within the range of normal.

"He did have an irregular heartbeat. He no longer has the irregular heartbeat. I don't think they will be able to determine what caused it. There are 100 different things that could have caused it."

Black said to the best of his knowledge, Horry had no history of heart problems.

"He had a cold and upper respiratory infection, he had some discomfort," Black said.

Dr. John Moe, one of the Lakers' team physicians, supervised the testing on Horry.

Black said Horry was to wear a monitor for 24 hours through Tuesday's shootaround.

"If it remains normal today, tonight, tomorrow through the shootaround, he'll play," Black said.

Horry is averaging 5.5 points and 5.8 rebounds. He was replaced in the starting lineup by Travis Knight, who had four points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots in a 101-99 loss to the Pacers.

Lakers guard Derek Fisher said Horry told him shortly before being hospitalized that he had been having pains in recent weeks and it scared him.

"I'm glad to hear that he'll be OK," Fisher said. "I'm not interested in him hurrying back to be with us. His health is more important. We just wanted to know that he was OK."

Lakers coach Del Harris also expressed relief.

"It's bad enough you have a knee or back or something like that - internal, that's a little scary," Harris said.

Rick Fox also missed practice Monday due to an upper respiratory infection, and Shaquille O'Neal, the NBA's leading scorer, attended but was kept on the sidelines because of his strained right groin.

"Best practice I ever had today," O'Neal said with a smile, having spent time on a stair-type exercise machine and doing a little shooting.

O'Neal missed last Thursday's 86-75 loss at Minnesota due to the ailment, but returned to action impressively against Indiana with 36 points and 17 rebounds.

"It's never going to go away, I'm going to have this problem the rest of my career," said O'Neal, who missed 21 games with a similar injury last season.

O'Neal said he planned on playing against the Hornets.

"I can use him," Harris said with a smile.

Harris also sai he believes Fox will be able to play, and he was hopeful as far as Horry was concerned.

"They've been coming and going, as they say in the Midwest," Harris said of his players. "We had a good practice today, we made some progress."

The Lakers bring a 3-3 record into Tuesday night's game against the Hornets (1-4).

"I'm embarrassed and very (angry)," O'Neal said. "I've never come out 3-3. I think guys need to step their game up. Everybody has to be on the same page. If everybody is not on the same page, we're not going to go anywhere. Sometimes, we are (on the same page)."