Scott Doesn’t Have Kidney Ailment, Doctors Say

Doctors confirmed Friday that Laker guard Byron Scott, who reportedly has played for a few weeks while experiencing internal bleeding, is not suffering from a kidney ailment.

But Scott, who missed Friday night’s game between the Lakers and Charlotte Hornets at the Forum, is not expected to accompany the Lakers on a 3-game trip beginning Sunday in Dallas. It is possible, according to one of Scott’s agents, that Scott could be out of the lineup for as long as 2 weeks.

The Lakers did not disclose the cause of the blood in Scott’s urine. Scott reportedly underwent further evaluation at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood on Friday morning and spent the remainder of the day resting at home. He apparently is not taking medication.

In a prepared statement, the Laker internist, Dr. Michael F. Mellman, said: “Byron is fine. There are no underlying kidney disorders, and the blood in his urine has already begun to clear up. There are no other significant problems, and we expect him to return to full participation in the near future.”

Mellman added, however, that he did not want Scott to return to action with the Lakers until “the problem is completely cleared and did not recur after a few days of practices.”

Scott, 27, apparently did not tell the Lakers of his condition until Wednesday. But Randy Vataha, an associate of Bob Woolf, Scott’s agent, said that Scott has felt ill and experienced varying degrees of internal bleeding for nearly a month.

“It may be a month or even more, as far as I can remember,” Vataha said. “He tried to play through it for a while, and maybe that ended up hurting him more. But it demonstrates the team attitude Byron has. He didn’t want to hurt the team by missing games.”

Scott could not be reached Friday. Vataha, who said he had spoken with Scott, said that he was told that the Lakers’ third-leading scorer “shouldn’t do anything for a week or maybe two.”

Mellman apparently is still trying to determine the cause of Scott’s condition, evaluating tests and looking into the medical history of Scott and his family.

“They haven’t found anything that is abnormal yet,” Laker trainer Gary Vitti said. “When (doctors) bring somebody in with blood in the urine, they think it could be all of these things. They do tests and rule out all of those things. I think that’s what they’ve done. They’ve eliminated all of them. It might just be something like an infection, but they don’t know.”