|
COPYRIGHT 2001 South Florida Sun-Sentinal
Byline: Ira Winderman
MIAMI _ It is late, an hour after he has completed his comeback, eight hours after he announced it and, frankly, Alonzo Mourning has had enough of what he calls "the circus."
As he sits in the Heat players' lounge at AmericanAirlines Arena, he props his right foot up on one chair and slumps into another. His wife, Tracy, is at his right, with a television behind him replaying highlights of Tuesday's comeback.
No effort is made to look at the pictures. The 6-foot-10, 260-pound center already has lived them once on this night. Instead, he leans forward and softly replays, in his own words, how he got here, this journey from that fateful announcement in October of a life-altering kidney ailment.
Over the next 45 minutes, without the cameras, without the microphones, Alonzo Mourning is never more human. He and his wife discuss the night when it all went terribly wrong, the period in February when the good news stopped, the times when Alonzo has refused to cry and his wife has insisted on shedding tears for both, and the comfort provided by 4-year-old Trey.
As Tuesday turns into Wednesday, six months of waiting for this night come flooding back into focus.
The first scare
It was mid-October and this all was new to Mourning. Focal glomerulosclerosis was merely a concept at the time.
The name of the disease was impressive, but Mourning was feeling bigger than his illness.
Teammates were in Albany, Ga., that day, preparing for an exhibition the next night against the Atlanta Hawks. A few had remained behind. Mourning decided to join them on the practice court.
The day ended with Mourning being rushed to the Baptist Hospital, tubes providing the sustenance Mourning could not provide for himself.
"That day was pretty scary," he says, eyebrows lifting on the NBA's most expressive face. "I didn't know what direction my body was going in. All I knew was I was feeling bad. They had to put IVs in me."
He was scared. Terrified. Hospitalized.
"I kind of brought that on...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
