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AROUND THE NBA : Doctor Says Jackson Can Rejoin Nuggets

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From Associated Press

Denver Nuggets guard Chris Jackson, who has experienced bouts of dizziness recently, has been pronounced fit to play in Tuesday night’s game at Phoenix after a 24-hour monitoring of his heartbeat.

Dr. Allen Schreiber, the Nuggets’ team physician, says the monitoring revealed no abnormalities in Jackson’s heartbeat.

Jackson sat out Saturday’s game against Atlanta while his heartbeat was being monitored.

The rookie guard has experienced bouts of dizziness in games this season. The most recent attack occurred Thursday night after the Nuggets’ game with the New Jersey Nets and was severe enough that Jackson had to be assisted to the locker room.

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The next day, Jackson was examined by Schreiber, who detected an irregularity in a heart test he said might have been responsible for the dizziness. That’s when Schreiber decided to monitor Jackson’s heartbeat.

The monitor was removed Sunday morning.

“There was not a single abnormal beat in the entire 24-hour time period,” Schreiber said. “That, in conjunction with a normal treadmill test (taken several months ago) clearly satisfies me that it would be doing Chris Jackson a disservice to even begin to think he has any form of heart disease.

“He is cleared to play the rest of his career in the NBA and with the Denver Nuggets without reservation.”

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Asked if the symptoms of dizziness were stress-related, Schreiber said, “I do not have a handle on what caused these dizzy spells. But I can say with a great degree of certainty . . . that it’s not anything that will cause any risk to Chris Jackson’s life.”

Schreiber said the spells could have been the result of flu.

He added that Jackson’s drug regimen for Tourette Syndrome--a neurological disorder characterized by tics--will be re-evaluated this week, but because the symptoms were occasional, he doubted the medication was responsible for the latest problem.

A spokesman for the Washington Bullets said that Bernard King, who left Sunday’s game with the Celtics in Boston because of dizziness and difficulty in breathing, suffered from an allergic reaction.

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Four minutes into the second half of the Celtics’ 119-101 victory over Washington, the Bullets called a 20-second timeout. King walked off the court, went to the dressing room and then was taken to nearby Massachusetts General Hospital.

“It was an allergic reaction,” Bullets public relations director Rick Moreland said after King was released from the hospital. Moreland did not say what caused the reaction.

Moreland said the problem did not appear serious. He said King told him that doctors said the condition was not the result of heart problems.

Sidney Green of the San Antonio Spurs and Vernon Maxwell of the Houston Rockets have been fined by the NBA for fighting, the league announced today.

Green was fined $3,000 for initiating an altercation by flagrantly fouling Maxwell on Saturday night, NBA Vice Presdident Rod Thorn said. Maxwell was fined $1,500 for retaliating.

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