Maloof's heart is in the game

By DORSEY GRIFFITH
THE SACRAMENTO BEE

last updated: March 17, 2008 06:42:23 AM

Say what you will about Sacramento Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof. Just don't say he's heartless when it comes to his beloved, beleaguered basketball team.

Judging from Maloof's racing pulse during the team's recent loss against its super-rival, the Los Angeles Lakers, Maloof's passion hasn't chilled after nearly a decade of owning the team.

In just 48 minutes of nail-biting courtside action, Maloof's heart rate jumped from a comparatively lethargic 85 beats per minute at tipoff, to a thumping 175 after the Kings took a big lead in the second quarter.

After a recent study showed the excitement of spectator sports can trigger serious cardiac problems for some fans, The Bee asked Maloof to help demonstrate his own stress levels during the recent Kings-Lakers showdown at Arco Arena.

Maloof is well known for his histrionics during Kings games, particularly when the hated Lakers are in town.

On the evening of March 4, Maloof's peak heart rate was higher than what most relatively fit people would reach only after 10 to 15 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise. Even after the Kings lost momentum in the fourth quarter, Maloof's heart rate never dropped below 100.

"I'm a Libra, so I think I'm pretty balanced," Maloof, 51, said before the game. "But at a game like tonight, forget the balance. I'm going all out. It's a special game. We want to beat the Lakers. It's plain and simple."

Sacramento cardiologist Mike Fugit hooked Maloof up to a hospital heart-rate monitor. Three electrodes, attached to Maloof's chest, provided a continuous reading of rhythmic contractions of the chambers of his heart.

Because heart rate serves as a surrogate for how someone is feeling, an electronic finger on Maloof's pulse during a challenging match against a key rival would provide a telling picture of how spectator sports may impact ardent fans, Fugit said.

In an otherwise healthy man, Fugit explained, heart rate accelerated by emotional stress is likely not dangerous. In someone with known heart disease or other cardiac risk factors, however, a tense game could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back.

Fortunately for Maloof, who is 5-foot-8 and 195 pounds, "I just had a checkup and I'm in perfect health, thank God," he said before the Lakers game, rapping knuckles on a table at the Kings practice facility.

As an amused Maloof listened in, Fugit cited an intriguing study of stress effects on fans during the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament in Germany.

The research, published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 4,279 German patients admitted to a hospital with acute cardiac problems during selected time frames over four years, including the one-month period in the summer of 2006 when Germany hosted the World Cup.

What they found was risk of heart attacks, cardiac chest pain and irregular heartbeats resulting in hospital emergency room trips more than doubled during World Cup matches when the German national team played.

"The highest spikes (in cardiac emergencies) occurred in matches where it was an elimination game," Fugit said. "The only game where there was no demonstrable spike was when they played in the consolation final for third place."

Unlike his late father, a diabetic who died from a heart attack at age 57, Gavin Maloof said he has no known risk factors for heart disease: He routinely lifts weights, does sit-ups and push-ups and runs on a treadmill. He said he spent an hour working out before flying to Sacramento from Las Vegas for the big game.

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