Mourning Expects to Be Cleared to Play

Alonzo Mourning expects doctors to soon clear him to play next season after sitting out the last year because of kidney disease, his agent said Thursday.

The approval for the Miami Heat star should come in the next few weeks, agent Jeffrey Wechsler said.

“When he gets the OK from the doctors, he’ll be clear to play next season,” he said.

Mourning had told Sporting News Radio that doctors are encouraged by the improvement, saying they have given him the “thumbs-up to possibly go out there and play the game again.”

The 33-year-old Mourning was diagnosed in October 2000 with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a kidney disease that can eventually require a transplant. He played in only the last 13 games for the Heat in the 2000-01 season but appeared in 75 games the next season.

Last September, Mourning was advised by doctors to skip the 2002-03 season because test results indicated his condition had worsened.

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Golden State Warrior guard Gilbert Arenas won the NBA’s most improved player award.

Arenas claimed a spot among the league’s quickest, most exciting players in only his second pro season. He got 41 of 118 first-place votes, finishing with 288 points.

Utah’s Matt Harpring, who emerged as a dependable scorer in his first season with the Jazz, was second with 234 points.

Arenas, a former Van Nuys Grant High standout, averaged 18.3 points, 6.3 assists and 4.7 rebounds as Golden State made the NBA’s biggest single-season improvement in its win total, from 21 to 38.