Autopsy Results Inconclusive on Gathers’ Cousin : High school: Initial exam shows no evidence of heart attack, heart disease, trauma or drug usage.

Preliminary results of the autopsy of Joseph Marable, a first cousin of Hank Gathers who collapsed Tuesday on a basketball court in Philadelphia, did not reveal the exact cause of death Wednesday.

The initial examination of the heart did not show strong evidence of a heart attack or heart disease, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s office said. Officials also believe death was not caused by illegal drugs or trauma.

Investigators are awaiting results of toxicology and tissue studies before announcing their conclusions. The results are expected by week’s end.

Marable, 17, died at Temple University Hospital on Tuesday. A senior at William Penn High in north Philadelphia, Marable had participated in about five minutes of full-court play during an afternoon tryout before collapsing.

A 5-foot-10 guard, he was trying to make the Lions’ varsity. William Penn canceled its Wednesday night game against Overbrook.

Marable’s mother, Gail, is the younger sister of Lucille Gathers, whose son, Hank, collapsed while playing for Loyola Marymount in March of 1990 and died 90 minutes later. He was playing with a heart condition.

Lucille Gathers was among the family members and friends who went to the hospital emergency room where Marable was taken.

Marable had transferred to William Penn last January from Dobbins Tech, the same school where Hank Gathers was one of Philadelphia’s great prep players in the 1980s.

Experts still do not agree on the cause of Hank Gathers’ death. The Los Angeles County coroner’s report said that Gathers died of myocarditis, a treatable inflammation of the heart muscle that sometimes reverses itself.

But Dr. Michael Fishbein, who was asked by the coroner’s office to examine the heart, concluded that Gathers died of an unclassified type of cardiomyopathy, an incurable condition that causes thickening and scarring of the heart and can interfere with the heart’s electrical current. Moreover, the condition can be congenital. It is treated in part by limiting physical activity.

Fishbein, a cardiac pathologist at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, was unhappy that the coroner’s report listed Gathers’ death as myocarditis. He wanted the Gathers family to be aware of his conclusion so family members could be evaluated. But the coroner’s office stood by its findings.