The curious case of Brian Grant

(Blogger’s note: This post is the first in a series of five or so that is part of what I’m tentatively referring to as “Life Change Week.”  Basically, I’ve had a lot of difficult stuff come up, the sort of things that pile up Life Change Units on one of those stress tests you’ve probably seen before.  As part of dealing with it all, I’m going to be writing about it here.  Hopefully, it will be helpful for you as well.  And now, to paraphrase Bette Davis, fasten your seatbelts — it’s going to be a bumpy week …)

I mentioned last week that my wife’s latest edition of ESPN: The Magazine (published in New York: The City) arrived, and that it was their annual “athletes-take-over-the-mag” issue.  Now, usually this magazine has a feature near the front called “This Just In,” an editorial about something going on in the sports scene, written by one of their top writers.  Being that it was the jocks’ issue, though, the slot this time around was filled by a former NBA player named Brian Grant.

I remember Grant from when he first came to the NBA with my hometown (well, home-region) team, the Sacramento Kings.  He was a 6’9″, 250-pound power forward with a decent shooting touch, a good rebounder.  His basketball career never quite lived up to expectations due to some injuries, he never made an All-Star team and he won’t be going to the Hall of Fame.  But he did play twelve years in the Association and made more money than I’ll ever see in my lifetime, so you can’t say he wasn’t a success.  But basketball was not the main thing he was writing about in his column — he has a challenge to deal with that’s a bit tougher than going one-on-one with Karl Malone.

Brian Grant has Parkinson’s disease.