The NBA Trainers Association (NBATA) on May 16 awarded the Brooklyn Nets’ Tim Walsh, ATC, its Jim O’Toole Athletic Trainer of the Year for the second consecutive year.
Walsh, who has been the Nets’ head athletic trainer for the past 15 seasons and kept his team near the top of league for the fewest games missed due to injury in the 2014-2015 season, also played a pivotal role in saving two lives this year.
Walsh and team physician Michael Farber, MD, encouraged Mirza Teletovic to get a CT scan after the Bosnia- and Herzegovina-born power forward experienced shortness of breath during a January 22 game against the Clippers in Los Angeles.
Walsh stayed overnight with Teletovic in a local hospital, where the player was diagnosed with bilateral pulmonary emboli. Teletovic recovered completely and returned to play in April.
Two weeks after Teletovic’s hospital admission, Nets assistant coach Jim Sann had a mild heart attack and went into cardiac arrest during a practice at the team’s East Rutherford, NJ, training facility, where Walsh and team training staff saved his life by performing CPR and using a defibrillator.
Sann also experienced a complete recovery, while Walsh and the training staff received American Heart Association awards for their actions.
