Former Kentucky Wildcats forward and NCAA National Champion Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has filed a lawsuit against a health insurance company for denying his claim after he was diagnosed with myocarditis due to what the lawsuit claims was two COVID-19 shots.
Kidd-Gilchrist last played inside the NBA bubble with the Dallas Mavericks in 2020, but during that year he began experiencing acute chest pain while training and had to stop playing basketball due to his condition, according to the lawsuit.
Since being diagnosed with myocarditis and his insurance company denying his claim, Kidd-Gilchrist has filed a $40 million lawsuit against Lloyd’s of London, an insurance company.
Kidd-Gilchrist made the claim for “permanent total disability arising from an illness”, according to his lawyer, Jason Morrin. According to the policy, the company provided coverage if Kidd-Gilchrist couldn’t “continue his employment as a professional basketball player”. But he said the company didn’t “fully cover the damages caused by the injury for which plaintiff sought coverage”.
Kidd-Gilchrist was diagnosed with myocarditis in December 2021 and still showed signs of the heart condition in June 2023, when he was last examined.
With his condition, Kentucky and NBA fans will probably never see Kidd-Gilchrist play in the NBA again, but he did get to play in the NBA for eight seasons. Before that, he helped Kentucky win the 2011-2012 NCAA championship, the eighth in the programme’s history and John Calipari’s first as head coach.
