The Toronto Raptors DeMarre Carroll really is the definition of Junkyard Dog 2.0. He plays with a grit, toughness and resilience that few in the NBA exhibit. Well, he just got a whole lot tougher. In mid 2008, DeMarre Carroll was diagnosed with a rare form of liver disease, after getting itches down his leg consistently. Carroll sat down to with Jared Zwerling of the NBPA to discuss his life long battle with liver disease:
It was July 2008, and DeMarre Carroll, then a rising senior at Missouri, started having an itching feeling all down his legs.
The itching got so bad that Carroll was scratching his skin off and he was bleeding. His girlfriend at the time thought it was allergies because they had just gotten a dog. About a month later, he had blood drawn that showed his liver enzymes were very high. But some more tests revealed he had a rare form of liver disease.
He cried for about two weeks straight, believing that it was the end of his basketball career. But he prayed and stayed strong, connecting to the church that his parents have in his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., and their message of having faith no matter what.
Carroll was eventually drafted 27th overall in the 2009 NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies and after bouncing around the league for a couple of years, landing on the Atlanta Hawks, where he was a part of the cast that led the Hawks to the top of the Eastern Conference. Now as a member of the Toronto Raptors, he is trying to help spread awareness to young people about the liver:
“I’m basically the first NBA player that played that I know of with a liver disease, and I’m trying to be an advocate for it,” he said.
With the support of the NBPA Foundation, Carroll is in the process of creating an informative and interactive educational component on his foundation’s website. The purpose is to provide a fun learning guide for the youth, ages 5-18, on the use, function and importance of the liver. They’ll also discover the 100-plus liver diseases that affect people their own age.
Visitors will be able to engage with the website in a “gaming” format. There will be an interactive model of the liver where one will be able to explore different parts of the organ. And there will be activities to help the youth understand some of the main indicators of liver disease, as well as an educational quiz about the organ.
Carroll recognizes that not many people are knowledgeable about liver disease and how it affects their bodies and lives. Too few know how to take care of their liver, nor can identify the basic functions of the organ. He feels it’s imperative to reach the youth to help them live a longer life with a healthy liver. Most children who receive treatment for liver disease, including liver transplants, recover from their illness and lead productive lives with continued care.
“You hear so much about the heart and about other organs, but you never hear about the liver,” he said. “And I feel like the liver is such an unsaturated market. I want to really step up and be the person to make my voice heard on a high level, so people can really understand that the liver is also affected.”
DeMarre Carroll is doing a good thing by starting this part of his charitable organization. He has been an active member of the community and NBA cares in the past, especially in Toronto recently with Sick Kids hospital. DeMarre Carroll joins the growing list of NBA players who are good people on and off the court, but he also joins a very short list of players who play through a disease. JYD 2.0.
