Kidney Transplant Needed For Alonzo Mourning

ESPN ^ | 11/24/2003 | Associated Press

[ServesURight]

Monday, November 24, 2003

Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Alonzo Mourning's NBA career is over.

The seven-time All-Star center will soon need a kidney transplant and will no longer be able to play professional basketball, New Jersey Nets president and general manager Rod Thorn announced on Monday morning.

"It is with great sadness that I make this announcement," Thorn said. "Alonzo is a true champion and a very courageous athlete who attempted to defy the odds with his comeback to the NBA. Unfortunately, his medical condition will not allow him to continue his basketball career. Our thoughts and prayers are with him as he continues his fight against this disease."

The team said Mourning needs a transplant "in the near future" and that a nationwide search is under way for a prospective donor.

The 33-year-old Mourning left the Miami Heat and signed a four-year, $22 million contract with the Nets last July despite missing the entire 2002-03 season with a kidney disease.

In 2000, Mourning was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a disease that causes chronic kidney failure within a decade in more than half of the people diagnosed.

Dr. Gerald Appel of Columbia University Medical Center said 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."

Mourning played in 12 games for the Nets this season, averaging a disappointing 8 points and 2.3 rebounds in 17.9 minutes. 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 and Miami Heat. He also was a member of the 2000 gold medal-winning Team USA Olympic squad.

[ServesURight]

Prayers to Mourning and to his family.

[presidio9]

I hope Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin are sufficiently disgusted with themselves today.

[TheBigB]

Hey, did you hear about this? ;-)

[ServesURight]

I hope Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin are sufficiently disgusted with themselves today

Why, what did they say?

[presidio9]

I hope Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin are sufficiently disgusted with themselves today.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Great basketball player and a dominating center. I enjoyed watching him play at Georgetown.

He's a good man, but unfortunately the hip-hop thugs have taken over the NBA now, which is why I don't watch the NBA now.

[ambrose]

Are they the ones who made fun of him for being in pain due to his kidney ailment?

[cyborg]

Try and tune in... more foreign players are being recruited so sometimes the thuggery is less apparent.

[presidio9]

See for yourself

[presidio9]

yep

[BlkConserv]

This generation's players grew up watching Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan play, even emulating them on the playgrounds in the inner cities.

Would you rather have them running the streets or get paid playing a sport they enjoy?

[gov_bean_ counter]

Stupid is as stupid does or once a thug, always a thug. Take your pick.

[doug from upland]

Instant poll:

Hillary Clinton should donate a kidney to Alonzo Mourning...if that doesn't work, she should donate the other

[ ] Yes

[ } No

[cyborg]

Better to be playing into people's stereotypes than to be doing something productive.

I think some folks grumble against sports in general becausse they wish they could get paid millions to do something fun.

[ServesURight]

Yeah, I read the link. Byron Scott is a horrible coach for letting the situation get out of hand in the first place.

K-Mart's comments were out of line, too.

[cyborg]

BTW, I may not like the nasty attitude of certain rappers and don't follow their lifestyle BUT! I am happy they aren't on the streets anymore. Eminem may be a little snotnose, but I'd not see him go back to where he came from.

I hope basketball goes back to what it used to be. It used to be a decent game before they started recruiting from the ghetto. Not many change their ways. I think the introduction of foreign players is changing that. Plus I think players are getting smarter about money, girls and education.

[cyborg]

I second that nomination

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Sorry, but the NBA is headed back to the good old cocaine days of the late 1970s. You couldn't pay me to watch a hoop game now. Teenagers barely old enough to shave coming straight out of high school instead of proving themselves and GETTING A DEGREE in college. Abysmal basic basketball skills that the players have. Low-scoring, NFL-like games. The ME-ME-ME attitude - I gotsta get mine playa screw my teammates, coaches, and fans or else Nike won't renew my contract and P. Diddy won't let me kick it in a rap video with him. The majority of fans are middle-class whites who are sick and tired of players getting arrested or having 4 or 5 kids out of wedlock with 3 different groupies. The NBA is more screwed up than Major League Baseball.

[ambrose]

They know how to throw a ball into a hoop, but they don't know much about compassion or common decency.

[cyborg]

That's what happens when you recruit from the ghetto instead of halfway decent colleges. I just notice players getting really foul when they started recruiting from high school.

The youngest player ever recruited now is an African immigrant from Ghana for MLS. BUT... he has a family, and is a genius (graduating high school at 15 and going to college in Wash DC). A lot of these players, were they to bust a knee, all they can do is go back to picking belly button lint on the stoop.