Lithuanian basketball great Arvydas Sabonis said yesterday he would have to limit his pleasures after suffering a heart attack a week ago, as doctors decided to release him from hospital.

“The doctors told me, ‘You can’t smoke, you can’t drink, you can’t play basketball.’ So of the things I like, only sex is left,” Sabonis told Lithuanian media at the clinic in his hometown, the central city of Kaunas.

“The doctors decided this. I’m a newcomer here so I do what I’m told,” he was quoted as saying.

Clinic spokeswoman Egle Zemaitiene told AFP that Sabonis was to be released today, a week after his heart attack during a training game in Kaunas.

He is to convalesce at home, with his condition set to be monitored for at least six months.

Sabonis, now 46, was inducted into the NBA’s Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Considered one of the top passing centres of all time, he played seven seasons for the Portland Trail Blazers between 1995 and 2003.