Deutsche Bank Skyliners guard Ajene Malaki (AJ) Moye suffered a stroke and was in a Frankfurt hospital for tests on November 18 after a collision with a teammate during practice, the German club said on its website Thursday.
The team said the Los Angeles, California native Moye and a teammate banged heads during practice on Monday with both players able to continue on, though the 28-year-old Moye had a hematoma above his right eye. The former Indiana University player struggled to find words during a telephone conversation with his father-in-law Monday evening.
According to the Skyliners site, Moye was acting slightly unusual at practice on Tuesday and after the peculiar behavior intensified he was brought to the practice of team doctor Dr. Herwig Gabriel and then onto the emergency room at Frankfurt‘s St. Katharinen Hospital.
“There was a circulatory disorder in the brain. It was a large infarction,” Gabriel said in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “It’s the worst I have experienced in my 20 years of work.”
“It is possible that the collision could have led to an irritation of the vessel that supplies blood to the brain,” said Gabriel.
The team did not practice on Thursday to instead visit Moye at the hospital.
Some media headlined their reports that Moye’s career is in question.
Moye had seen team doctor Dr. Wolfgang Raussen on Monday morning after a finger injury during Sunday night training and Moye did not show any signs of abnormal behavior – leaving the collision as the believed cause of the stroke.
“The diagnosis of a stroke is certain unfortunately. Further prognosis about the healing process and further therapy cannot be determined,” said Dr. Gabriel.
“AJ’s family arrived in Germany today and is with him,” Skyliners sports director Kamil Novak, who spent the entire day Wednesday with Moye in the hospital, was quoted on the team’s website. “AJ is one of the most professional players to have ever played in the club. There are situations in life where basketball is irrelevant for us. Right now our concern is with AJ!.”
Moye arrived in Frankfurt this season after playing last year with Finnish club Kouvot Kouvola. He had played three seasons before that with German club Walter Tigers Tübingen.