E-mail a friendAlonzo Mourning
airdate October 9, 2008
Seven-time NBA all-star Alonzo Mourning is known for his toughness. The same year he won an Olympic gold medal, he was diagnosed with a rare degenerative kidney disease. Though he sat out most of the '00-'01 season, he came back the next. However, battling the disease plus the fatigue brought on by anemia, he took his doctors' advice and retired. In '03, he underwent a successful kidney transplant. Mourning is a national spokesman for the National Kidney Foundation and dedicated to his community involvement.
NBA all-star explains why he is determined to return to the game of basketball. (2:29)
Full interview. (12:18)
Alonzo Mourning
Tavis: Pleased to welcome Alonzo Mourning back to this program. The seven-time NBA all-star defied all odds when he continued his basketball career following a kidney transplant back in 2003. Details of his inspiring story are told now in the new book "Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph." Zo, as always, glad to have you back, man.
Alonzo Mourning: It is always a pleasure.
Tavis: Good to see you.
Mourning: Always good to see you.
Tavis: We were laughing before you walked on the set, because I was - the purpose of this TV show is, as I say all the time, to enlighten people, to encourage people, and to empower people unapologetically. That's my job here on this program, I think, every night now for over 1,000 shows.
It doesn't hurt every now and again when you can break some news.
Mourning: Okay.
Tavis: So I'm giving a hint here to Alonzo. I'm glad you're here to promote the book. If you want to make some news by announcing that you are going to come back, I'm happy to hear that.
Mourning: Well, that's old news. (Laughter) I already - you're a little late, brother.
Tavis: You want to tell me when you're coming back, and -
Mourning: I'm trying to catch you up, man, on these current events. (Laughter) I made that news known months ago. I said I wanted to come back. Unfortunately, I had this knee injury back in December. My rehab is going extremely well, and it takes a year to recover from this particular injury. And I'm excited about the opportunity of possibly getting back out there and helping this young Heat team, provide some better leadership.
But man, I got to be patient. It'll happen when it's supposed to happen. But I'm working diligently to try to get it right.
Tavis: And that's what I was getting at, saying you wanted to come back. (Unintelligible) said I'm at that point now where I can say that it's head.
Mourning: Well, I can't just say -
Tavis: You're not there yet, though.
Mourning: I can't just say that right now that okay, I'm going to come back. I got to wait until it heals up and I've got to wait - make sure my doctors are happy with the way my strength is, which is extremely important for me to get back. I want to be 100 percent.
Tavis: For your fans who remember it but don't remember all the details, and for those who know who you are, but don't - they know about the kidney story, they've heard about that, but don't know about the need, what actually happened and where are you at in the process of healing?
Mourning: Well, last December we were in Atlanta, and (unintelligible) turned the ball over. And I was running after his man -
Tavis: That's rare.
Mourning: Oh, yeah. (Laughter) Trying to catch his man on the fast break, trying to block shots, which is what I'm known for doing. And I took off, plant it, and my foot went out from under me. I thought the floor was wet or something, but my knee just went out from under my feet, and everything just went different places. And I looked down and my knee was disconfigured, and I tore the patella and the quad muscle connected to the kneecap.
And the surgery was successful, and my rehab is going extremely well. I've just got to be patient. Unfortunately, injuries are part of every sport, so it's just how you come back.
Tavis: You got the ring; you got the money, seven-time NBA all-star, etc., etc., etc. Why? Why? You don't have to do this, man.
Mourning: Well, because of my resilience. (Laughter)
Tavis: Nice segue.
Mourning: Exactly.
Tavis: You ought to write a book about that.
Mourning: I still have it in my heart and I'm very passionate about the game, and I still feel like I've got a little bit to offer. In life, you follow your heart, man. You follow whatever you're passionate about, you follow your heart. And it's never our plan, regardless of what I had the intentions to do. It's God's plan, brother, you know?
Tavis: I love that line that says, "We plan, and God laughs."
Mourning: Exactly, exactly.
Tavis: We make plans, he just laughs.
Mourning: So I'm planning to come back on the court, but if it's not meant for me to be back out there again, plus the doctor told me, he said, "Look, you've got to rehab this like you are going to come back and play, just so you can have an opportunity to run after your grandkids one day." So I don't do anything halfway, brother. I go all out, and I want to get this right again so I could explore the opportunity of possibly playing again.
Tavis: How do you respond to the notion that many of us sports fans have that many of our heroes don't know when to say when. I'm not saying you're in that category as yet, but there are certain people who retire - and you haven't officially retired - people who walk away, retire. Lance Armstrong - great athlete, coming back. Jordan left, came back. Of course he won again when he came back. But how do you respond to folk who say that too many athletes of your caliber don't know when to say when?
Mourning: It's very difficult to explain, because they haven't been in this particular atmosphere and understand the passion that we carry about our profession. That's just like me telling you -
Tavis: To shut up.
Mourning: Yeah. This is your last show, Tavis. This is it. You know what I'm saying?
Tavis: Although I have been told that before.
Mourning: Exactly, yeah. (Laughter) But you're passionate about your job, your profession, and I know that one day it's going to all come to an end. I don't want to wait - I don't want to go 10 years from now and say, "You know what? I should have probably tried to come back and play just one more year." And to tell you the truth, no athlete wants to be forced out of the game. And my last memory of my career is being helped and carried off the court. That's not how I envisioned it.
Tavis: You want to leave on your own terms.
Mourning: I want to be able to walk off the court on my own terms, on my own power, and just say, "Hey, I'm done - I did it."
Tavis: To the book, "Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph," the first thing that got my attention about - the resilience is you, but the first thing that got my attention about the book was actually the subtitle, the faith, the focus, and the triumph. And I'm trying to figure out for you - because some people, I think, get this just right, some people go overboard with it, for my own taste.
How did you find the balance in being open and honest about your faith, just to inspire people with your own faith, and not get to the point of proselytizing? People don't want to be preached to. How did you find that balance in this book?
Mourning: Well, I don't see myself as a preacher, but I do know that I am a man of God and I understand that the creator is the one that designed all there is around us. And our purpose in life is we're not really - we get so tied up into ourselves, and we don't realize our true meaning, our purpose here, until some type of devastating event in our lives comes about.
And then it puts life in perspective and lets you know exactly what's your true purpose here. And what I'm getting at is that I went through a kidney disease, and I was at a particular point in my life where everything was going extremely well. The first team, all NBA all-star, defensive player of the year, gold medal winner, witnessing the birth of my second child - everything was fantastic.
And I was kind of - I got caught up in this world and not realizing my true purpose here, so when I was struck with this kidney disease, it truly humbled me and I had to stop and I had to think, okay, Lord, not why me - what do you want me to do now? Because evidently, it's not basketball at this particular time.
And just through that particular adversity, and I believe in every adversity as a seed of equivalent benefit. Through that particular time and having to go through the discomforts of the medications, dealing with the symptoms of the disease, going through transplantation in 2003, I touched so many lives, brother. I touched so many lives, I changed so many lives, and I inspired other individuals, and that was my answer. That's what you're here for.
You're here to enhance other people's lives through your experiences, and this is why I wrote "Resilience," because I knew that my life's events will help inspire and encourage people to take a different path towards some of the - from the issues and obstacles that they may be dealing with.
Tavis: Being a person of faith, I know that you know the scripture as well as I do, or for that matter any of those of us who believe in the word know the scripture all too well. In Hebrews, that faith is the substance - speaking of faith - that faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.
When I think about that word "faith" and that definition found in Hebrews, I think about you because there have been at least a couple of moments - you talked about one now - certainly more than two, but two that come to mind immediately where you've had to have faith when the evidence suggested that this might not turn out the right way.
Kidney being one of them, kidney disease, and foster care - going through that foster care program. Having to believe that this was the right thing, that it was all going to work out. Obviously, it has. The question is, how do you have faith, how have you kept the faith when the evidence suggested otherwise?
Mourning: It was extremely difficult, and it was very challenging because I kind of look at the overall situation and I say to myself, "Lord, okay, what do you want me to do now?" And now I see - I saw an opportunity where, okay, I got to make the right decisions and I know I've got to surround myself with the right folks.
So when I look at the whole scenario through trials and tribulations in your life, then if you give up and you don't believe that there is an opportunity to succeed, then it's all going to go the wrong way. I just believe that okay, I got to keep pushing, I got to keep working, and I got to think nothing but positive things and know that it's going to be all right.
So that's where the faith comes in. And I know that there is somebody else up there orchestrating what's going on throughout my life and helping me understand my true purpose here.
Tavis: If you, when you finish rehabbing that knee, are told by the doctor or you get out there and realize that you can't come back, you okay with that? You got the resilience, you got the faith, the focus to move on to the next phase in your life, happily?
Mourning: You know what? Very much so. If you look at that book, it has a lot of chapters in it. And as you finish a chapter, you start another one, all right? So once you finish that book, once it's over with, another chapter opens up and you go on to the next thing. That's what's going to happen to me.
And I think that each and every one of our lives, if we were able to put them on paper, carries a story. And each and every one of us can take something from everybody's story and use it and connect with it, and use it as strength to get through some of the issues that we're dealing with, because we all go through different problems.
So I want people to know a totally different side of Alonzo Mourning other than the intensity and the style that they see on the court. They're going to see a totally different side of me, and I'm going to connect with so many individuals just through my overall experiences because it's not a sports book, it's a life book.
Tavis: Whenever that time comes that he walks away on his own terms, I suspect the good folk at Georgetown might very well offer him a professorship in the religion department, the psychology department, maybe even the philosophy department back at Georgetown.
Mourning: Although I did minor in theology. (Laughter) But I don't see myself preaching, but I know -
Tavis: Maybe not preaching, but he may be teaching back in Georgetown.
Mourning: Yeah, I hear that.
Tavis: He got something to say, and he says a lot of it in the new book "Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph." Alonzo Mourning, perennial NBA all-star. Zo, good to see you.
Mourning: Hey, thanks, Tavis. I appreciate it. And I just want to let everybody to know that not only do the words of this particular memoir change lives but the sale of every book goes towards kidney research as well.
Tavis: Oh, cool. That's important to say, and I'm glad you said it.
Mourning: All right, man, thanks.
Back to October 9, 2008