UnderdogMindset

NBA player coming back after kidney disease

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Alonzo Mourning
Jeramey Jannene / CC BY 2.0
Posted: Feb 13, 2023 Updated: Mar 15, 2023
Basketball Disease

Alonzo Mourning was at the height of his career when he was diagnosed with a kidney disease called focal glomerulosclerosis in 2000. Unfortunately, there was and is still no cure for the disease. Alonzo was thirty years old and had just won back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards.

Initially, he was supposed to miss the rest of the 2000-2001 season, but he returned to play in the last thirteen games. He would make the All-Star team the following season, averaging 15.7 points and 8.4 rebounds a game. Unfortunately, he would have to miss the 2002-2003 season and retired from the NBA due to the disease in November 2003. Fortunately, his cousin, Jason Cooper, was willing and successfully donated his kidney to Mourning that December.

Mourning would play for four additional seasons, even helping the Miami Heat win the NBA championship in 2006.

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Quotes

There is no cure yet. Some people have had spontaneous remissions. But I would say 50 percent is extremely high, and that 25 percent would be really good.

Dr. Ronald Falk

I said ‘Doc, am I going to die?’ He paused; he took too long to answer me. And he said, ‘We have no known cure’… ultimately, he said, ‘In about 10-12 months you’ll probably be on dialysis,’” Mourning said as he recalled the jarring day.

Alonzo Mourning
References

  • NBA Legend Alonzo Mourning’s Journey From Kidney Scare To Health Advocate

    One day, Mourning noticed swelling of his feet. He was also just not feeling right. At the time, the NBA champion was playing for the Miami Heat, so he talked to the team doctor about his unusual symptoms. After undergoing multiple lab tests, the Olympic gold medalist was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease with a very long name: focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS.

  • Alonzo Mourning: How the NBA Star Rebounded from Kidney Disease

    At 6-10 and 240 pounds, Mourning was a unique patient when first diagnosed. “I was somewhat of a test rat for my doctors because they had never dealt with anybody my size and treated me the way they treated me,” he said.

  • NBA Hall-of-Famer Alonzo Mourning Shares Personal Story to Raise Kidney Disease Awareness

    NBA hall-of-famer Alonzo Mourning was at the height of his basketball career—he had just won gold in the 2000 Summer Olympics when he noticed extreme swelling throughout his body and a lack of energy. A routine physical exam showed abnormalities, and eventually, Mourning received a diagnosis of a rare, protein-spilling kidney disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS).

  • Alonzo Mourning's All-Star Rebound

    I came back because I knew that I had work to do. Since I went through transplantation, I felt it was my mission to touch other people's lives through the pain that I had to go through. I have been able to use my experience to enlighten -- and provide hope and support to -- individuals who are battling all kinds of physical obstacles, such as kidney disease, cancer, and diabetes. Being back on the court has helped to lift other's lives.

  • Mourning Is Out for Season With a Kidney Disease

    But the statistics do not seem to be overwhelmingly in Mourning's favor. According to Dr. Ronald Falk, the chief of nephrology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the 50 percent chance that medicines work is a high estimate.