Sources: Mourning’s Ailment Like Elliott’s

Kidney specialists have concluded that Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning has a renal disease similar to that of San Antonio Spur forward Sean Elliott, who underwent a transplant in August 1999 and returned to the court six months later, sources told the Washington Post on Sunday night.

However, the doctors had not pinpointed the severity of the disease--focal glomerulosclerosis--as of late Sunday, and one of the sources said Mourning’s ailment might be worse than Elliott’s. When or whether Mourning, 30, will resume his all-star career has not been determined.

Mourning is scheduled to discuss his kidney ailment publicly for the first time this morning at a news conference in Miami.

More than half the cases of this kind of disease progress to chronic kidney failure and require dialysis and eventual transplantation, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

According to a source, Mourning returned from the Sydney Olympics without symptoms of a kidney ailment, except for being tired. That was easily explained by his making two round trips to Australia so he could be with his wife for the birth of their second child. Then he started to become bloated, retaining fluid, as well as not feeling well, the source said.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers released guards Willie Burton and Khalid Reeves. . . . The Sacramento Kings, with Chris Webber sidelined because of an Achilles’ tendon injury, lost, 92-83 to the Indiana Pacers in an exhibition game at Indianapolis. . . . San Antonio center David Robinson was sidelined because of a sore right foot as the Spurs lost, 96-91, to the Mavericks in an exhibition at Dallas.