Something old, something new: a healthy Jamal Mashburn's return to form has the union between the Hornets and New Orleans off to a blissful start. (NBA).

Helen Mashburn was skeptical. For days, doctors had tried to explain the cause of the illness that had stricken her son, Jamal. It started as a simple stomach virus, but viruses pass quickly. This did not. This illness made Jamal constantly dizzy and made just standing up or rolling over in bed difficult.

It soon was clear the problem was not his stomach and was unrelated to the abdominal strain he endured for five months last season. He was told it was a vitamin B-12 deficiency, which turned out to be wrong. And the subsequent diagnosis of anemia made no sense to Helen Mashburn because no one in the family had ever had anemia. She told her son to seek a second opinion.

"I had been diagnosed with everything under the sun," Jamal Mashburn says, "No one knew what it was. That was the toughest part, the not knowing. So, in those situations, you have to listen to your mother."

Helen was right. Jamal Mashburn had positional vertigo. And what timing. Mashburn had not been feeling well since April 20, the day his Charlotte Hornets opened in the playoffs. Just 10:20 into the first half of Game 1 against the Magic, Mashburn was bent over, unable to continue. The Hornets went on to win the first-round series, but Mashburn did not return against the Magic. He did not return for the second round, either, and the Hornets lost to the Nets in five games.

Mashburn shrugs off the disappointment of ending the season that way, saying, "It was not that disappointing. It was something that just happened, that I could not control."

But his teammates know better.

"Of course, you're worried about his long-term health," Hornets forward P.J. Brown says. "You're worried about his family. He works so hard all season, for him to all of a sudden come up with some weird sickness 10 minutes into the playoffs, that's tough on him as a basketball player. Tougher than he lets on."