Mourning a Big Hit in His Return

Playing in an NBA game for the first time since a kidney transplant was like riding a bike for Alonzo Mourning.

Once he was on the court, the veteran center looked as if he had never left.

In a strong 19-minute performance, Mourning had 12 points and five rebounds in leading the New Jersey Nets to a 96-94 exhibition victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night at East Rutherford, N.J.

“I have been playing this game for over 20 years,” a matter-of-fact Mourning said at his locker after the game. “It’s just like riding a bike, you never forget. You never forget how to ride a bike. If you haven’t ridden one in three years, they throw one in front of you, you know what to do with it.”

Mourning was supposed to play 10 minutes at most, but he almost doubled that. Coach Lawrence Frank even asked him at one point in the second quarter if he was OK. Mourning smiled and said “yes.”

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Defining one of the goals of owners in ongoing collective bargaining talks, NBA Commissioner David Stern said teams would like some type of relief from long-term contract obligations to unproductive players.

The NBA’s seven-year labor agreement expires after the upcoming season, and the league and players’ union have been holding preliminary talks on a new deal -- the first since the sides went through a costly lockout that wiped out a large portion of the 1998-99 season.

Stern said owners would like to cut the maximum length of contracts from seven years to four.

“Owners, on balance, want to come up with a system that’s a bit more profitable than the existing system and doesn’t reward players who are no longer in the league -- or who shouldn’t be in the league at higher prices,” Stern said in a conference call.

“Players getting contracts and not playing in the league is taking money from players who are in the league and are playing heavily. That’s what gets us into discussions of shorter contracts.”

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Houston Rocket center Yao Ming was held out of the team’s final exhibition game with the Denver Nuggets because of a hyper-extended left elbow.

Yao injured the elbow early against San Antonio on Wednesday when he got tangled up under the basket with the Spurs’ Rasho Nesterovic.

An MRI examination of the elbow revealed a “partial tear” of the ligament, according to team officials.

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Avery Johnson announced his retirement, officially ending his 16-year playing career and becoming a full-time assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks.

Johnson, 39, played for Dallas in 2002-03, then re-signed with the Mavericks on Sept. 30 as a player-coach with no expectation of playing significant minutes.

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Jason Kidd was cleared for individual noncontact drills to get his surgically repaired left knee ready for the Nets’ season.

New Jersey’s star point guard, who had surgery in July, was reevaluated by Dr. David Altchek of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. There is no timetable for his return to the active roster.

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Rookie free-agent guard Desmon Farmer from USC was among the cuts by the Indiana Pacers.... Forwards Lonny Baxter and Donnell Harvey were cut by the Atlanta Hawks.... The Chicago Bulls waived forward Gary Trent and center Cezary Trybanski.