For Allan Chaney, there’s nothing more difficult than watching a basketball game from the bench. An athlete since he took his first steps, Chaney has always centered his life around basketball.

But for the majority of the last five seasons, Chaney hasn’t been able to take the court. In April 2010, he was diagnosed with myocarditis, a heart infection, while sitting out a year at Virginia Tech due to transfer regulations. Since then, the sixth-year senior has had to spend nearly every single game as merely a spectator.

“I never had a chance to prove anything,” Chaney said. “I was always this kid who was talented, who could do this, could do that, but I could never show anything. I never had the opportunity to do anything.

“And it was killing me, because I wanted to play basketball.”

Now, after three schools, six years, and many visits to the doctor, Chaney decided he will never again step back on the court to play competitive basketball. The High Point star forward’s defibrillator malfunctioned during a game against Wofford on Nov. 24. He fell to his knees, and called the trainer over. He felt fine, remained conscious, but slowly got up and trudged to the locker room, hugging head coach Scott Cherry’s 8-year-old son on the way out.

He didn’t know it then, but it would be the last moments Chaney would ever compete on a basketball court. Two weeks later, he decided to prematurely end his career after consulting with his heart doctor, Francis Marchlinski. That moment closed the book on a dream that Chaney had since he was just a little boy.

“It was hard, because I was playing good,” Chaney said. “I came to get better, and I felt like I got better coming from last year. I worked hard this summer. I didn’t give it up. It’s not like I just said, ‘I quit’. It was something that I had to do, I was forced to do it.”

After his junior year of high school, Chaney trained all summer on a local outdoor park with his AAU coach, Kalvin Bunkley, so that he could put himself in position to be recruited by a top-tier program. He worked strictly on his athleticism, and he never picked up a basketball.

Bunkley said he didn’t lack basketball skills, just a motor.

“He would have me on one side of the court,” Chaney said. “All my friends, dudes on my high school team and everything, they’re playing over on one side of the court, the main court, and I’m over on the court where nobody plays at.”

The hard worked paid off. He had his motor, and a slew of offers from top Division I colleges. He was listed as a top-100 recruit by ESPN and ended up playing his freshman season at Florida.

But then he transferred to Virginia Tech and sat out three seasons.  The school announced in a press release it would not clear him medically, never telling Chaney in person. He heard the news via a flood of texts and tweets.

It appeared his career was destined to be over, and he found out via cellphone. 

“That’s just a part of this business,” Chaney said. “This is a business. I can’t walk around moping, being mad at everyone on Virginia Tech’s campus because someone made a mistake. Everybody is going to make mistakes. They didn’t clear me, I’m over it.” 

But Chaney got another chance. It may not have been under the bright lights of the Atlantic Coast Conference, but it was Division I basketball.

Chaney would compete in a small 1,750-person gym with stands behind the bench that went only six rows deep.

“He didn’t care about what level it was,” Cherry said. “He didn’t care about playing in small gyms. He didn’t care about traveling on buses to games. All that he cared about was that he was given the opportunity to play the game of basketball.”

But not everyone was happy with the decision. Dave Dietter, the athletic trainer for basketball at Virginia Tech, said he was surprised to see Chaney land with a team. He had been using a defibrillator that was not Food and Drug Administration-approved, one that wasn’t researched, and wasn’t in use by any other Division I athletes.

“He went to one specialist that sees multiple heart conditions a year, and (that doctor) said, ‘I’d never, ever, clear you,’” Dietter said.

The Panthers’ star forward averaged more than 15 points and almost nine rebounds per game, but just more than a month ago, Chaney decided that risking his life was no longer worth the reward of taking the court.

Since Chaney stopped playing, High Point has gone 0-4.  

“He really had a lot to offer our team, and this university, and basketball in general,” Cherry said. “But unfortunately, the way it is, we can’t do anything about it. We can’t change it. We just have to move forward with the team we have.”

Now, Chaney knows he must affect the game from the sideline. He said Cherry called to tell him that his teammates have been working harder since he left, and have learned a lesson about not taking things for granted.

Down the road he hopes to help the game by providing defibrillators to young athletes that can’t afford them. He’s planning to start a non-profit organization when he gets his master’s degree from High Point this spring.

But wherever Chaney ends up and whomever he may help, it won’t be directly on the basketball court. And he’s beginning to come to terms with that.

“I’ve proven that I can play, and that I can play with anybody,” Chaney said. “I’ve proven that I’ll never give up. I had an opportunity to do something, and I took advantage of it for the most part, it was just time.

“I’d rather just live my life.”

Published on December 20, 2013 at 4:14 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3