The disappointment was clear
in Alonzo Mourning's voice when he broke the news to Jason Kidd: He was calling
it quits because his life-threatening kidney disease had worsened.
Mourning wasn't worried about himself, though. His
biggest concern was letting the team down, four months after joining the New
Jersey Nets.
"The big person that he is, he was very soft-spoken," Kidd said Monday,
recalling his telephone conversation with Mourning the night before. "He felt
that he was maybe letting me down in the sense that he came here to try and win
a championship and he came here because of me."
Mourning, 33, will need a transplant soon, and the team said a nationwide
search is under way for a prospective donor.
A player who epitomized work ethic, Mourning lasted just 12 games in his
return to the NBA after sitting out last season and large portions of two others
because of the ailment, focal glomerulosclerosis.
"For him to come out and almost kill himself to just play the game that he
loves, it just shows the kind of person 'Zo is," Kidd said.
Mourning was not at the team's practice Monday. It was not immediately clear
whether the Nets will have to pay the seven-time All-Star the remainder of the
four-year, $22 million contract. Nets president Rod Thorn refused to discuss the
topic.
Coach Byron Scott said he had stared at Mourning's chiseled body in recent
days with a fear he kept to himself.
"I would get updates on his numbers every day and it scared me to death,"
Scott said Monday of recent medical reports. "When I started cutting him
minutes, it was because I was getting a little nervous. I kept hearing about how
his numbers were going up. Again, it had nothing to do with his performance. To
me it was more of a life and death situation."
Former San Antonio Spurs player Sean Elliott contracted the same ailment and
underwent a kidney transplant in 1999. He returned briefly in 2001, then
retired.
The disease attacks the tiny filters in the kidney that remove waste from the
blood. That makes the kidney spill protein from blood into the urine. The
resulting damage can lead to kidney failure, which requires dialysis or a
transplant.
The disease was detected in Mourning in 2000, while he was with the Miami
Heat (news) and shortly after the 6-foot-10 center helped the U.S. team win the
gold medal at the Olympics.
Dr. Gerald Appel of Columbia University Medical Center, said Monday that
Mourning's kidney function has deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks.
"It is no longer medically safe for him to play basketball," Appel said.
"Although he still feels well, the chemical imbalances in his blood make it
dangerous for him to play."
It was not immediately clear if Mourning might be able to return to the court
if he undergoes a successful transplant, team officials said.
"I told him the game of basketball is just a game and I want you able to see
your son play the game, or your daughter, your beautiful wife," Kidd said of his
conversation with Mourning. "Don't be upset that you feel you let me down
because I want to be able to still call my friend."
Mourning saved his best game with the Nets for last. He had a season-high 15
points in 16 minutes in an 81-80 loss to the Toronto Raptors (news) on Saturday.
However, he looked exhausted when he left the court in the fourth quarter.
"We don't know why certain things happen, and we can't control them," Scott
said. "From our standpoint as a coach, team and organization, we have to learn
from this and understand that it goes fast, and it can be taken at any time. He
played every game like it was his last game, because he never knew when it was
going to happen."
News of Mourning's retirement came just four days after he and Kenyon Martin
nearly came to blows when Martin teased Mourning about his kidney condition at
practice last Thursday.
Martin acknowledged Monday he made a big mistake.
"In the heat of the moment you, say things you wished you hadn't," Martin
said. "I apologized right afterward. It still doesn't take it back that I said
it. I apologized to him, he accepted my apology and we moved on from there."
Mourning averaged 8 points and 2.3 rebounds in 17.9 minutes for the two-time
defending Eastern Conference champions, who have struggled this season, posting
a 5-7 record. His career averages were 20.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game
coming into this season.
He was in his 12th season in the NBA, having previously played for the
Charlotte Hornets (news) and Heat. He missed the 1994 and '97 All-Star games
because of injury, and the 2001 game because of the kidney ailment.
"It's a sad day in anyone's life when they can no longer do what they love,
especially when they have no control over their situation," said Heat president
Pat Riley, Mourning's former coach.
Mourning wasn't worried about himself, though. His
biggest concern was letting the team down, four months after joining the New
Jersey Nets.
