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On Borrowed Time

by Kate Ferguson

Unaware he had a rare kidney disorder, NBA legend Alonzo Mourning kept up the killer pace of an elite athlete. But as the shot clock ticked, he came closer and closer to becoming a kidney disease statistic.

In 2000, Alonzo Mourning stood an imposing 6 feet 10 inches and weighed 260-plus pounds. He was a professional athlete at the top of his game. But even this formidable hardwood warrior couldn’t go one-on-one with kidney disease, a time bomb that makes African Americans nearly four times more likely than Caucasians to develop kidney failure (also called end-stage renal disease, or ESRD).

Like many people with kidney disease, Mourning was blindsided by news of his diagnosis. Many forms of kidney disease usually exhibit no symptoms until late in the course of the condition. And Mourning, who recently retired from basketball, fanatically guarded his health. “I was a person who relied so much on my health and strength to get me through my profession,” Mourning says. “I ate right, didn’t drink a lot, wasn’t a drug abuser—none of that.”

Ironically, just before his diagnosis, Mourning played a stellar season. He’d just pocketed a gold medal as a member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic basketball team, was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and made the NBA All-Star team—again.

So Mourning had no reason for concern, especially since early warning signs didn’t manifest in physical ailments—at least not obvious ones. “I felt a little lethargic and a little fatigued,” Mourning explains. “But I expected to feel a little run down because I’d been traveling all summer flying back and forth to Australia.” (Mourning had flown home to witness the birth of his second child, a daughter, Myka Sydney—named for the city where he struck Olympic gold—then had returned to the competition to resume playing.)

But then a preseason physical showed high creatinine levels in his blood, and the team physician sent Mourning to a kidney specialist, a nephrologist named Victor Richards, MD.

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