Although fans clamor for the best of the best to participate in the All-Star Game every year, it's easy to see how the weekend turns into somewhat of an obligation for its perennial participants. After a while, the novelty fades a bit and the experience becomes a blur of interviews and promotional appearances. Plus another basketball game to add to an already extensive season. A five-day break is more of a commodity than being seen among the A-list at one of the weekend's big parties.
Heat center Alonzo Mourning has even more license than his brethren to beg out of the festivities. His seventh All-Star selection comes in the middle of his first full season after being diagnosed with a kidney ailment that sidelined him for almost all of last year. His team is floundering through its worst season since his arrival in 1994 and Mourning has had to shoulder the load. He deserves this break and no one would begrudge him for taking it.
 Alonzo Mourning is all smiles about being back among the NBA's best after missing most of last season with a kidney disease. Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images |
"Rest and recuperation was on my mind the whole time on this break. It was time that I felt my body definitely needed," Mourning conceded. "So I did think about (skipping the All-Star Game), but at the same time, how could you pass up this honor? Especially going through what I had to go through physically and still being able to get back to this level. I feel it's a great achievement that I should not overlook at all. Just on principle alone."
Mourning celebrated his 32nd birthday on Friday, amidst a hoard of media asking the same questions over and over about his health. There had to have been a time, some 15 months back, when he wondered what this day would bring – if he would still be playing in the NBA, maybe even if he would still be alive. And when it came to pass that he was okay, that he could have a normal life and the career he loves again, returning to the All-Star Game was the furthest thing from Mourning's mind.
"I went into this with pretty much a self-centered attitude, just trying to get myself physically right to play this game at a high level again," he said. "Obviously I had some doubts on my way to coming back, but it was all about trying to get my body to catch up with my mind through this whole process.
"Throughout, just looking at the beginning stages of trying to come back and do all that good to be a part of the game -- that camaraderie and that same type of atmosphere that I've been a part of all my career again. I had a lot of doubts and along the way I never thought I would get back to this level again."
He raised an eyebrow when someone called him a "vintage center," protesting that his 32 years hardly qualified him as a dinosaur. But he's the third oldest on the Eastern Conference squad behind Michael Jordan and Dikembe Mutombo – a full decade ahead of Tracy McGrady and Baron Davis. And with his body needing the rest, Mourning goes into the 51st All-Star Game embracing his veteran status.
"I was just telling Byron (Scott, East coach) in the meeting over there – they were saying, 'Zo, are you up for playing 48 minutes?'" Mourning laughed. "I said, man you've got all these young fellas on this team that haven't been here. You'd better give them a little time. I'm alright. Just give me the pom-poms and I'll be over there cheering for everybody."
His grin – and his play this year – obscure the fact that you don't talk about Mourning's kidney ailment in the past tense. The focal glomerulosclerosis is only in partial remission. He has to ingest eight medications every day for the rest of his life and could very well need a kidney transplant somewhere down the road.
So of course he has fears, doubts, insecurities. But right now, Mourning has the game he loves back in his grasp, with his seventh All-Star selection to prove it. And from where he sits, the trials and tribulations of his health merely gave him a jump start on a mentality now shared by the rest of the country.
"I'm always fearful for the simple fact that I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I don't know what's going to happen the next day. I've gotten to the point now where I live for the moment," Mourning said. "I live for the moment especially, with everybody experiencing Sept. 11 and understanding how precious life is. It definitely makes you look at life from a totally different perspective. It just lets you know that every day is not promised to you.
"I've gotten to the point now where first and foremost I know I'm so blessed and fortunate enough to be able to play the game of basketball again, let alone to be a part of the All-Star team. Man, I'm just excited about playing another game of basketball. That's what I live for now, being able to play the next game and to be able to contribute and help my team be successful."
