‘I’m home and feeling good’: Ex-King spent birthday recovering from heart attack

Most people celebrate their birthday doing something fun or relaxing with family and friends.

One former Kings player spent his recovering from what was called a minor heart attack.

Bonzi Wells, a 10-year NBA veteran who spent the 2005-06 season with the Kings – Sacramento’s last postseason team – was recently hospitalized in Indiana but is home now. It’s not clear what day Wells had the heart attack.

“I wanna thank these ladies for saving my life,” Wells said Wednesday in a post on Instagram. “They went above and beyond to make sure I would be ok. I suffered a heart attack @40 but I’m home and feeling good thanks to all that called and prayed for me” with the underlined 100 emoji at the end.

“I’m OK had a minor heart attack,” Wells told The Star Press of Muncie, Ind., via text message Thursday, which was his 41st birthday. “Small clot hit bottom part of the heart. Had surgery so I’m back to 100% no restrictions.”

Wells’ NBA career ended after the 2007-08 season, but he is still playing pro basketball. He was a member of Tri-State in Big3, Ice Cube’s 3-on-3 league of former NBA players that debuted this past summer.

In the NBA, the shooting guard and small forward played for five teams, including his first five-plus seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers. In his lone season with the Kings, he averaged 13.6 points and 7.7 rebounds. Those totals skyrocketed in the playoffs. In a first-round series against San Antonio, Wells averaged 23.2 points and 12 rebounds, but the Spurs won in six games.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 7:18 PM with the headline "‘I’m home and feeling good’: Ex-King spent birthday recovering from heart attack."