For the second year in a row, a member of the Heat organization has undergone surgery to correct a potentially life-threatening illness.
Heat assistant coach Keith Smart returned to the team Monday after a procedure to treat a rare form of skin cancer called dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP). One in one million people are diagnosed with it.
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The 51-year-old went in for a checkup with his dermatologist last month after noticing a slight bump on his left cheek. He eventually needed a 15-hour surgery. He rejoined the team in Oakland as it prepared to take on the Warriors on Monday night.
"The scary part is it wasn't scary, because there were no symptoms," Smart told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, "so I had no symptoms, nothing other than a little bump that was on my cheek, so I didn't have anything where it was like, 'What's going on?' And then once you start going through the process, going through the testing and things like that, not until probably a week before the surgery was it was communicated where I did have a slow-growing cancer."
Smart, who has also served as head coach for the Cavaliers, Warriors and Kings, may not be done with treatment. Radiation is still a possibility.
"Because it's slowing growing and with the surgery such a success, with the margins being pushed back," Smart said, "it just pushed me into my normal life expectancy, whatever it might be.
"What they're trying to focus more is on trying to find a cure for it. That's why radiation will be presented at the study. So if, for whatever reason, I had to do the radiation, then it's a 30-day process."
Heat forward Chris Bosh had surgery for blood clots in his lungs that forced him to miss most of the second half of the 2014-15 season.