MIAMI – The comeback is slow, cautious, mysterious and with just a touch of paranoia. Not that we expected anything less when it comes to Alonzo Mourning and Pat Riley’s Heat.
There was serious speculation and hint-dropping earlier this week that Mourning would make his first start today against the Knicks at American Airlines Arena in Miami. That won’t be the case, with Riley saying that ‘Zo is still a game or two away from that momentous occasion and would prefer him to do it on the road.
When a New York reporter asked Mourning about his fatigue following the Heat’s victory over Charlotte Friday night, Mourning snapped, “Why do you want me to tell you? So you can write it and the Knicks can read about it. No, I’m not telling you.” He giggled and added, “I feel great.”
The Heat are a .500 team since Mourning returned from his 69-game absence spawned by focal glomerulosclerosis – a serious kidney disorder.
Miami moved to 3-3 with Mourning following a victory over Charlotte with Mourning playing 27 minutes – the most since he began his comeback. Mourning also hit the go-ahead basket with 1:33, giving the Heat the lead for good on a fallaway banker.
“The farther we go, the less restrictions will be on Zo as far as time constraints,” Brian Grant said.
You have the feeling, though, that Mourning is saving his best for today when the Knicks hit town.
“I’m making progress,” said Mourning, who’s averaging 11.2 points and 5.5 rebounds in 21 minutes per. “Looking back to six months ago, when I was first diagnosed, I’ve made huge leaps and bounds. At times, I’m talking to the disease itself. I’m saying, ‘I’m going to beat you. I’m going to win.'”
The Heat finally trotted out that Big Frontcourt alignment during sections of the Charlotte game. That’s the vaunted unit that everyone was so scared about over the summer – Mourning in the pivot, Grant sliding from center to power forward and Anthony Mason going from big forward to small forward.
There is speculation that Mason, who had an All-Star season at the “4”, is not going to be happy once the lineup is used exclusively.
“As time progresses, we’re going to get better and better at it,” Mourning said.
Mourning’s career and life still seems in jeopardy. When he returned, he proclaimed the doctors could not assure him how playing NBA games will effect his disease. The condition scars the kidney’s filtering units that clean toxins from the blood and allows protein to leak into the urine. This change in body chemistry can put extra stress on other organs.
Mourning, though, has stopped feeling sorry for himself. He’s still taking a truckload of drugs, from diuretics to corticoid steroids to immunosuppressants.
“A lot of people who have this disease don’t have the advantages I have,” Mourning told Code Magazine in this month’s issue in which he’s the coverboy. “The blessing is knowing I have the best help in the world. There are people who can’t afford this medication or only have a week’s sick leave to deal with it.”
In preseason, the Knicks had no idea how they’d match up at center with Mourning.
Turns out Camby has been one of their pillars. The 6-11 Camby is playing his best ball of the season the past week with three straight spectacular games vs. the Lakers, Magic and Wizards, including his first career 20-20.
Riley called Camby yesterday one of the best centers in the game.
“When the trade was made Oak-for-Camby, a lot of people at the beginning thought it was really a one-sided trade because a veteran player was going on a team that needed experience and the jury was out on Camby,” Riley said yesterday. “I don’t think it’s out anymore on him. I think he’s developed a role and he’s complied with that role. He’s one of the most effective players in the game right now [among] big men. He’s a long, big impact player getting better and better.”
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Grant says he finally understands the depth of the Knick-Heat rivalry . “At the beginning of the season, I didn’t look at it as this big rivalry,” Grant said. “I definitely look at it like that now. You want to play well against the Knicks. When they play us, it brings out the best in everybody.” . . . The Knicks have already won the season series, entering the game 3-1, so they win any tiebreaker with the Heat for the third seed.
