Miami Heat legend Alonzo Mourning speaks to reporters after revealing cancer diagnosis

Miami Heat legend Alonzo Mourning speaks to reporters after revealing cancer diagnosis

oh am man thank appreciate all right guys would you like to start with anything or you questions um you know I I can start um you know first of all just thank you all for being here you know I feel like uh this opportunity that you all are here gives me a chance to reach as many uh men that I can uh to help get the message out of about um prostate cancer awareness and uh helping men be proactive with their health um February the 23rd uh I received the news that uh after my biopsy that I had stage three prostate cancer and uh it was terrifying news uh was uh um not expecting that simply because of how I felt and that was a scary thing because I felt great you know you know I had been working out body was feeling absolutely incredible and um getting my regular checkups and you know one of my doctors was concerned that my PSA was a little elevated but I didn’t feel any uncomfortableness or have you um but because of his judgment as a doctor and him making decisions that were in my best interest he recommended that I get an MRI and then from the MRI turned into a biopsy and then I ended up receiving the results you know that immediately ignited um it kind of stimulated major change in my life life it really did and um once I educated myself and got a grasp on what was going on uh because I know that people they deal with all types of cancer every day you know but understanding that men um over 3 point you know three million men have prostate cancer and then 4 before uh die of prostate cancer and then also one in eight um get diagnosed with prostate cancer you know so you think of the numbers and you say to yourself okay wow you know I was one of those statistics how many others are out there that don’t even know you know so once I got a grasp on what was going on and understood what my options were whether it would be chemo or the surgery or what have you I made a decision to remove it uh which I felt was the right decision today right now cancer free thank by the grace of God and um now um my focus and I sat down with um the people I confide in you know my my agent Jeff and my business advisor Allan first and you know I sat down with them and I told them that I said hey I want to you know I want to turn this adversity into something that would be positive for Humanity and um this isn’t about me this is much bigger than me it truly is you know I I feel like God is kind of using me as a vehicle in order for me to get the word out to help create some momentum behind men being proactive with their health so um I’m thankful that you’re here here uh so that this gives me that platform to do that to reach as many men as as I can and let me tell you I’ve received so many calls and words of encouragement and thanking me for uh being transparent uh and then I receiv received calls from individuals that actually have had the surgery and they’re doing extremely well and they’re happy that I’m encouraging other men to do it because they share with me that you know if they did not get the tests that they needed to get that you know their cancer would have spread or they would have had to do chemotherapy or what have you you know so catching it early is extremely important that’s the key with all of this you know catching it early and I was very very blessed to have caught it early even though it was a highgrade cancer it hadn’t reached the point where it Spread spread to my bloodstream or my organs I was blessed I truly was it stayed in this capsule and they were able to remove it and now I got to go and do my checkups you know but the long and short of it is that um it’s important that that that guys that we have the dialogue that we do that men have the dialogue they need to have as it pertains to their health you know and and I hope this that this really starts the process of guys starting to talk about the health whether it be prostate issues or you know kidney related issues you know which is silent Killers you know colonoscopies you know colon cancer which is another silent killer if you don’t get your colonoscopy at a certain I mean all these particular things are extremely important for men especially you know middle men you know to start you know um getting out in front of it and making sure they address these issues before they escalate into something a lot more serious questions hey so first of all how are you feeling right now you know being able to tell the world your story and in general just as you with your health right now well I uh well I feel um blessed that I’m able to weather the storm St um because it was a it was a pretty severe storm that I had to go through um the pain of the surgery you know the ups and downs the emotions that I had to go through especially after going through all the other things I had to go through with my kidney transplant you know and then I had to deal with this you know so it’s fair to say that I’ve been battle tested quite a bit throughout my career with all the injuries and and what have you but uh I do know that something good is going to come out of this and I feel like this gives me an opportunity to make that happen and um I feel good about the fact that I’m able to to share my story to encourage other men to be proactive with their health sorry zo reading your story and hearing your talk one of the things that really sticks out is when you’re saying how great you were feeling at the time yeah and I think we all know you as somebody who takes exceptional care of yourself but you know there’s if there’s an element to this of if if this could happen to someone like zo you know what about the rest of us who maybe don’t take as good care of ourselves but could you expand a little bit about on the life you were living physically how you were taking care of yourself at that time to to feel so great plant-based primary plant-based diet you know only you know Animal product that I ate was fish uh exercising you know um doing yoga drinking a lot of water eating right I mean just doing what I got to do to take care of myself you know being proactive with my health from that perspective you know this is a silent killer it is and the doctors have educated me on that they said there’s so many men that they just don’t know unless they get a checkup you know and they request the PSA you know one of the things that bothers me a lot of general practitioners don’t ask to test for the PSA you know the patient pretty much has to ask you know it’s unfortunate that it’s not requested under a lot of general practitioners it’s not requested and another primary care physicians um that they test for the p say you know so it’s it’s it usually has to come from the patient to ask the doctor which I’ve been educated on that as well you know because guys go in and get a regular checkup and they never get their PSA checked you know so emphasizing that uh knowing that you know I was feeling completely fine and and knowing I had this you know cancer inside my body and um if I wasn’t again proactive then I would have found out years later and it would have been too late you know so um I I want men to get out in front of it I want them to address not just PSA but all their health issues and what bothers me more than anything you know and I grew up this way in a household where it was taboo to talk about health related issues it wasn’t never discussed it wasn’t never talked about at the dinner table it wasn’t wasn’t talked about that the family reunion it wasn’t never talked about you know and um I think the more that we talk about it uh the more there’s dialogue and there’s more information shared I think the more that people are able to make decisions that will benefit the health long term can you share with us what was going through your head when you first got that diagnosis in February uh um I was deflated when I got the news cuz I couldn’t believe it I mean I’m complete I was just completely deflated deflated you know um to the point where I was I was like well I mean again you know again man because I’ve I’ve had so many different Health obstacles and I’m sitting here looking at this one and I’m saying how how could this this particular thing happen to me I was taking such good care of myself and then the doctors told me he said it was way beyond your control your grandfather had prostate cancer your father had prostate cancer so there’s a 50% chance that you will get prostate cancer so when he shared that with me I could I understood that it was genetic you know so immediately just like I addressed any of my other obstacles Health obstacles I started getting as much information as I could trying to find the best doctors so they could they could help direct me or down the right path that I needed to go down in order to address this properly you know I tried I had to find the best help and it’s important that you get second and third opinions which I did and I finally came to conclusion of what I wanted to do uh so there was uh I was deflated um there was there was fear there there was because when you start talking about cancer immediately you thinking okay so where is it is it all over my body I didn’t find that out till um shortly after and they did a pet skin and then they you know which was a relief when when they told me that it hadn’t spread so soon as they gave me the diagnosis they called me on the phone and then they I rushed over to the hospital and and had the pet scan done and then they found out that it was ENC capsulized and it hadn’t spread so uh that gave us hope towards trying to uh solidify next steps zel you’re you’re obviously a public figure this is Private Matter how was it a difficult decision to share your story or was it was it pretty simple because you wanted to use your platform in this way you know what um my um my doctor uh vul Patel in in Orlando he’s done over 18,000 robotic Prost prostectomy and he uh he told me he said look he said there’s so many men out there that have cancer and don’t even know they have it and I thought long and hard about that we were having this conversation shortly after the surgery as I’m laying in the hospital bed recovering in a lot of pain by the way because they had to cut through a a lot of muscle to get to prostate you know so the healing process is very painful for me from that perspective and um I said doc I said well how do they how do we find how how do we help those guys that don’t know he’s like man you see we we got to get the word out we got to encourage these guys to go and just get regular checkups you know so I thought about it it was all stimulated by that conversation so then it really wasn’t and my thoughts were really wasn’t about me you know yes I was trying to get out of the hospital and get back to a normal life and heal up you know so now I’m um yesterday was 11 weeks removed from the actual surgery yesterday Monday uh and I’m back in the gym working out everything I’m feeling good but I knew at that moment when Dr Patel and I were having this conversation I knew that I couldn’t just wait for somebody else to do it and I knew that this moment was an opportunity for for me to to try to help as many people as I could so it wasn’t about me anymore you know yeah I had to focus on my health and get myself right but I had to make sure it was a right time and I felt like this was the right time when when I got my my um 8we checkup um blood test came back cancer free my PSA is extremely low and uh I said it’s time it’s time for me to to get the word out you know identified the the right spokesperson you know Jeff and I my agent you know we sat down and identify a person that could write the article and to to reach as many people as possible and from there you know I really just wanted to just make a difference uh because this is about keeping people alive it truly is I was lucky you know it’s a lot of people that won’t be as lucky as I am but I feel like if I can touch them before it even gets to that point if I can reach them before it gets to that point and they’re able to make some the right Health decisions for themselves then that’s what this is all about me sitting here is about saving lives uh good morning good afternoon um can you talk about the support you received from those in your personal life your private life and then also receiving support from the um public it it it was so uplifting to hear the textes the emails the comments people calling um many were so elated that um I was so vocal and transparent with with my personal life and um and then and also we I had some people share that testimony you know a friend of mine he works for the NBA he just had his surgery done last his prostate removed last year and he’s on the men and he’s like hey man I’m so glad you did this and I’m not g to mention his name but he said I’m so glad you did this he said um uh anything I could do to help you know I would love for the I would love to tell my story as well to encourage other men cuz that’s what it’s about mean men don’t don’t like going to the doctor they just don’t you know my father never my grandfather they didn’t want to go to the doctor they never did you know we I was always taught as a kid to gut it out and suck it up and you know and and that’s not the way to go it’s not you know that’s not the approach to take yeah we want our a young men to be tough you know but we want them to be smart too you know and we want him to we want to encourage them to have better health habits and going to the doctor is part of that process you know uh knowing how to speak to do knowing what questions to ask them you know um it’s it’s one thing going to the doctor and many people when they go to the doctor they’re intimidated it’s natural you know there’s a reason why when people go to the doctor their blood pressure goes up they check their blood pressure and then the doctor say well let’s wait a minute till you calm down because a lot of times people are nervous when they’re in in the doctor and that’s how I am too I don’t like going to the doctor but I know I have to do it uh but encouraging people to be proactive with their health understanding that there’s so many underlining reasons that and obstacles Health obstacles that can escalate but if you catch them early you know you can diffuse the problem before it gets to a certain point um and and that’s high blood pressure kidney disease um you know cancer colonoscopies you know all of that stuff I mean it’s just so many different things that if you catch it early enough you could you could kind of diffuse it and and address it um before it escalates into something a lot worse you touched on it a little bit there in terms of men not liking to go to the doctor no put it off I I’ll get to it sometime later totally yeah and we know you as a competitor and you thrive in in this building competive environment and this was happening during the season right team is trying to make a run I’m sure you want to be around it how difficult or maybe easy was it for you to pull yourself away from that and focus on on this and on top of that what kind of support have you received from the organization as Pat righ I mean he’s the best you know he’s extremely supportive and um when I shared the news and I waited I waited before I told him he told me and I shouldn’t have waited as long as I did you know but I just wanted to get a hold on what was going on um but once I gathered all the information and knew what I was going to do um he told me take as much time as you need come back when you’re ready you know so he’s very supportive and he said that uh he was there for me if if I needed anything obviously but he said take as much time as you need you know and I I came back probably a lot sooner than I should have because I wanted my I wanted to be there for the guys you know but um yeah it was tough being away from the team it really was you know and I tried to keep it as private as possible until I got things under control you know but um uh I’m in a much better place now you know and um I’m ready to stimulate change in this space uh as it pertains to this narrative you know I’m ready to stimulate positive change to help men think differently um because uh this isn’t going anywhere it’s not you know and um knowing that this affects men of color even more you know uh and I know men of color traditionally speaking you know with all the other obstacles they face in in Inner City Community where not only they are comfortable going to a doctor but can’t even afford to do it you know or taking care of their families or what have you and can’t afford to really pay for Health Care um it’s important that we get the word out and encourage these gentlemen you know to try to figure out ways um to get proper screenings you know and I want to be a part of that initiative and create some momentum around that so when you got the diagnosis and you started I’m sure Googling or something like that um what surprised you the most from the stats because you were giving us those numbers and those numbers alone are you know staggering for for men yeah and I just gave you the numbers that I think these numbers are from like 20 2019 yeah 2019 2024 some of them are pretty yeah pretty much the same um staggering numbers but that’s not even including they don’t even have the numbers of the men that aren’t diagnosed and have cancer so the numbers are higher than that probably you know so you think about the statistics it’s intimidating to think that you know if you take eight men and put them in a room and and point to one of them like okay you’re the one you know or you take 44 men and you point to the one and say okay you’re the one that’s going to die of of prostate cancer you know so with these statistics I mean they’re very intimidating uh but also knowing that it can be addressed if it’s if it’s caught early which is so important to know that there’s hope you know there’s actually hope if you’re proactive if you get out in front of it and um I feel like that this stage this platform these cameras you know will help create some amazing momentum and change in society I’m hoping that you know across the across the country across across the globe you know where Dr Patel has had people from all over the globe come to see him like I said he’s done over 18,000 proc prostectomy you know so it lets you know you know you know it’s uh how many people that’s affecting you know and like I said that’s not even including the ones that that really don’t know you know so uh the more we can get the word out the more that we can kind of help heighten the attention behind it uh for men and um you know we can help save some people’s lives yep y CLE minutes you do that right

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame center Alonzo Mourning is holding a news conference at the Kaseya Center Tuesday, a day after he revealed to ESPN in an interview that he had undergone surgery to have his prostate removed after being diagnosed with Stage 3 prostate cancer. #Alonzo #miamiheat #florida #miami #dadecounty