USC Basketball: Pundit Examines How States Can Improve Approach To Cardiac Arrests

After the latest Trojan's collapse, the country has taken notice.

After incoming USC freshman guard Bronny James collapsed during a July 24th Galen Center workout due to a cardiac arrest, fans were concerned in the short-term for his health, and in the longer-term for his basketball future.

Now that we know he has a congenital heart defect that his family and doctors believe (a) will be manageable, health-wise and (b) he will be able to play through, we can all breathe a bit easier.

During an appearance with CNN anchor Abby Phillip, Rachel Nichols unpacked previous instances where athletes have gone on to enjoy successful careers despite congenital heart defects, before moving on to reveal that politicians were taking note of the recent instances with James and Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin.

On CNN discussing Bronny James' "significant congenital heart defect" and why doctors are so confident he can return to the court. Also, given that cardiac arrest is the No. 1 cause of death for young athletes, here's what more state governments could be doing to protect them: pic.twitter.com/wvXy4wp3rE

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) August 27, 2023

"The good thing is they've identified this, they clearly know how to treat it, and people who've been around sports for a long time know, congenital heart defects do not stop athletes from playing sports," Nichols began. "In fact, there [are] some very famous instances of it. Snowboarder Shaun White has a congenital heart defect. U.S. soccer player, world champion Lauren Holiday had a congenital heart defect. There's a lot of players who have overcome this... [I've got to] mention also Teddy Bruschi, who's won three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots."

"The thing also he can do is look to his own teammate," Nichols added hopefully. "This is bizarre but exactly almost a year to the day, that Bronny James collapsed, a year earlier, one of his teammates at USC [now-sophomore Vincent Iwuchukwu] had collapsed from a cardiac arrest and in fact came back to play in the middle of last season."

"These kinds of cardiac arrests are the leading cause of death in young athletes. It's very significant that this has happened in front of the world stage, first to Damar Hamlin and then with Bronny James, in getting people to pay attention to this," Nichols said. "In fact, we've seen some legislative action on the heels of all of this. Less than half of the states in the U.S. require defibrillators to be at high school sporting events, despite the fact that it's young athletes who are affected by this the most of any athlete... In Pennsylvania, there's been a law introduced by a state senator earlier this year that quickly became known as 'Damar's law' because he was literally watching television, saw Damar Hamlin collapse, and decided, 'Well why don't we have these protections for our student-athletes in Pennsylvania?'"