MIAMI — “Again?”
That, Alonzo Mourning said, was an immediate emotion of the moment, on Feb. 23 when informed that he had Stage 3 prostate cancer.
Because for a mountain of a man, at 6 feet 10, 261 pounds, there he found himself, again cut down to size by his body.
“And it was terrifying news,” Mourning related, speaking with the type of vulnerability rarely witnessed during a 16-season NBA career that saw him seven times selected an All-Star, twice named Defensive Player of the Year, crowned by a NBA championship with the Miami Heat in 2006 and then inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014. “I was not expecting that, simply because of how I felt. And that was the scary thing, because I felt great. I had been working out, the body was feeling absolutely incredible.”
So there he was again, life for the Heat icon altered by a devastating diagnosis, just as it was upon returning from the 2000 Sydney Games with Olympic gold, when he was detected with a serious kidney illness that eventually would require a transplant in 2003.
Now, as then, health has been restored, again robust, now 11 weeks removed from removal of his prostate, an ensuing PET scan showing no spread of the cancer that he says was capsulized.
“I feel blessed that I was able to weather the storm,” he said in a reflective tone, “because it is a pretty severe storm what I had to go through, the pain of the surgery, the ups and downs, the emotions I had to go through, especially after going through all the other things I had to do with my kidney transplant and then I had to deal with this.
“So it’s fair to say that I’ve been battle tested quite a bit through my career, with all the injuries and what have you.”
In the wake of the kidney diagnosis, Mourning, 54, stepped away and into the shadows, missing almost the entirety of the 2000-01 season. But in the ensuing months and years following his return, he became an advocate for transplant awareness, his donated kidney coming from a relative, a resource not available to all.
This time, as he recovered from his prostate surgery, there was nearly an immediate recognition of a call to action.
“Today, right now, I’m cancer free, thanks by the grace of God,” he said. “And now my focus and I sat down with the people I confide in . . . I told them, I said, ‘I want to turn this adversity into something that will be positive to humanity.’ And this isn’t about me. It’s much bigger than me. It truly is.”
That had him sharing his story nationally in an interview with ESPN that was published Monday and then sitting at a media session Tuesday at Kaseya Center, where he is back to his daily calling as the Heat’s vice president of player programs.
In the midst of his cancer diagnosis, Mourning stepped away, that absence not as noticeable as when he had to step away as a player following his 2000 kidney diagnosis.
“Pat Riley, I mean he’s the best,” Mourning said of the Heat president and his championship coach during his playing days. “He’s extremely supportive. And I waited before I told him.– and I shouldn’t have waited as long as I did, but I just wanted to get a hold on what’s going on, but once I gathered all the information and knew what I was going to do — he told me, ‘Take as much time as you need. Come back when you’re ready.’
“I came back probably a lot sooner than I should have, because I wanted to be there for the guys. But, yeah, it was tough being away from the team. It really was.”
Currently immersed in the process of the team’s planning for the June 26-27 NBA draft, as prospects filter through the team’s practice court, Mourning said he felt it essential to pause for messaging that could preempt the suffering of others.
“I do know that something good is going to come out of this, and this gives me an opportunity to make that happen,” he said, seated not far from where his No. 33 hangs from the rafters, having retired as a player in January 2009 following a devastating knee injury. “And I feel good about the fact that I’m able to share my story to encourage other men to be proactive with their health.
“What bothers me more than anything, and I grew up this way, and I was told where it was taboo to talk about health-related issues, and it was never discussed, it wasn’t ever talked about at the dinner table. It wasn’t talked about at the family reunion. It wasn’t ever talked about.”
So he spoke,
Calmly.
With measured words.
A decided contrast from the menacing scowl of his playing days.
“This,” he said, “is about keeping people alive. I was lucky. There’s a lot of people that won’t be as lucky as I am.”
As a player, the gratification was instant, after each dunk, each blocked shot.
Now, in the wake of his openness, there again is that feeling.
“I’ve received so many calls and words of encouragement and thanking me for being transparent,” he said. “And then I received calls from individuals who actually have had the surgery and they’re doing extremely well, and they’re happy that I’m encouraging other men to do it. Because they’re sharing with me if they did not get the tests that they needed to get, their cancer would have spread.”
Further information and assistance for treatment of prostate cancer, including donation details, can be found at cancer.org/cancer/types/prostate-cancer.html.