Heat Move on After Losing Mourning

Oct. 17 -- Miami Heat coach Pat Riley made a series of offseason deals to build a championship-contender team around Alonzo Mourning. Now, with the news of the All Star center’s kidney problems, the Heat are left with a big hole in the middle.

Mourning, one of the best big men in the NBA, announced Monday he has focal glomerulosclerosis, a disease that causes the kidneys to leak protein and leads to kidney failure in more than half the cases. He will miss the 2000-01 season while he receives treatment, which doctors said would not likely include dialysis or a transplant.

Mourning’s focus understandably is on getting healthy. The Heat’s priority is also on getting better.

Revamped Team Still Questionable

Last year, the Heat missed making the NBA Finals by one point in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks. Mourning was superb that game — scoring a series-high 29 points, grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds and blocking five shots. But Miami still came up short, and a team revamping was in order.

In the offseason, the Heat dealt for shooting guard Eddie Jones and forwards Brian Grant and Anthony Mason. Only six of 12 players from last year’s playoff team returned, and Miami was hailed as finally having the offensive firepower to match its defensive strength. Riley said after the deals, “We’re ready to take off to another level.”

Losing Mourning, 30, has changed that outlook now, and the race for supremacy in the East is somewhat of a crapshoot. The Indiana Pacers lost nearly every key player except Reggie Miller, the Knicks traded Patrick Ewing and are questionable, the Milwaukee Bucks are an unpredictably streaky team that could surprise the conference, and the Charlotte Hornets just might be the best in the bunch.

The Eastern Conference lacks a dominant center this season, besides Atlanta’s Dikembe Mutombo. Ewing is gone. Rik Smits is retired. And Mourning is out now, too, which puts the Heat on relative equal footing with its competitors. Plus Miami still has a strong front line.