Heat Move on After Losing Mourning
Oct. 17, 2000 -- 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.
But Miami backup centers Duane Causwell and Todd Fuller don’t come close to filling Mourning’s shoes as players and, most important, as motivators. They can’t provide the team leadership their sidelined star did in five seasons in Miami.
Losing a Leader
When Ewing declared at the start of last year’s playoffs against the Heat that he was the best center in the conference, Mourning responded by outplaying and outscoring his New York rival and childhood hero — including sinking two shots in 42 seconds to win Game 1 for Miami 87-83.
Last season, Mourning averaged 21.7 points per game, led the league in blocks per game (3.72) and was ranked third in field-goal percentage (.551). He earned the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year honors for the second straight season and finished third in voting for the league’s Most Valuable Player award.
It was Mourning who was the best center in the conference, and one of the best in the league.
“Without Zo, everything changes,” Miami guard Tim Hardaway told The Associated Press.“It’s going to be like that for the whole season. Nobody’s goingto give us any pity. They’re going to take it to us.”
“Basketball is going to be our therapy,” Jonessaid. “We have to continue to go out and play basketball to try toget over this shock. Everybody has to take it up another level.”