We heard rumor of this, but didn’t want to report it until we saw it confirmed. Thanks to Tampabay.com, we now have: “Former Florida State star center Solomon Alabi’s precipitous fall in Thursday night’s NBA draft apparently was due in part to a diagnosis of Hepatitis B, his sports agency confirmed to the Times. Ugo Udezue, a vice president of player representation for BDA Sports, released a statement from Dr. David Lucas, a sports medicine specialist in Clermont: ‘Solomon Alabi tested positive for the Hepatitis B virus. Contact with this virus is common in the African population. His condition is easily treated and in no way will affect his ability and performance as a professional basketball player. He can look forward to a long and successful basketball career.’ The 7-foot-1 Alabi, a native of Nigeria who came to the United States in June 2005 and went to high school at Montverde Academy near Orlando, was FSU’s leading scorer as a redshirt sophomore and a big reason the Seminoles were one of the nation’s stingiest defenses the last two years.”
Earlier this year, Mouphtaou Yarou, a freshman at Villanova from Africa, was diagnosed with Hep b. He came back to play after missing a good chunk of the season.
