Spears: Anderson Varejao's blood clot was life-threatening

Anderson Varejao is simultaneously one of the luckiest men alive and the unluckiest basketball player in the NBA.

In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, Varejao relayed information about what happened with the surgery, and what went wrong.

"I was having my best season, the best time of my life, and a week later I'm in the hospital and I could be dead," Varejao said. "It's crazy. I'm very lucky."

Varejao had trouble sleeping and suffered back and chest pain shortly after having surgery on his quadriceps near his right knee on Jan. 10. He didn't waste time telling the Cavaliers' medical staff. A CT scan revealed the blood clot in his left lung, sending him back to the operating room. Horror stories from friends brought more light to the situation.

"They told me stories like, 'Oh my God, I had a friend who died of a blood clot in their lung,' " Varejao said. "And then somebody else tells me the same thing. ...

"Then you start to think about it and realize that this is more serious than I thought. A week after the surgery I was at home thinking about how I could be gone right now."

That's a really scary thing to think about. Thank god Varejao didn't waste any time in letting the Cavaliers' medical staff know of his condition. In one of the more famous instances of a blood clot, rapper Heavy D was killed in 2011 when a blood clot travelled from his leg up to his lung.

Spears also goes on to note that Varejao is doing some light rehabilitation on the quadriceps, and is slated to get off of blood thinners on April 16.

One final thing of note in the article is that Varejao addresses the possible trade rumors.

Varejao has one more year left on his contract after this season and a team option for the 2014-15 season. He hasn't heard his name mentioned in trade talks since his injury and says he wants to remain in Cleveland.

"If they trade me, they trade me," he said. "I'm happy here. I don't want to be traded."

I doubt Varejao's trade value will be very high until he comes back from injury and proves that this doesn't harm his style of play. So I can't see him being dealt any time soon, meaning he should get his wish to play for the Cavaliers next season. Plus, when Varejao is healthy his contract is among the best values in the NBA. At this point, it doesn't suit the Cavs to sell low on Varejao while he's still recovering.

So let's hope Varejao is ready for next season, and that nothing goes poorly with his rehabilitation. His playing career deserves some luck, doesn't it?