Risking their health all in the game for some pros

Risking their health all in the game for some pros

COLUMN FRY E-mail: Click here

By DARRELL FRY

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 30, 2001

They parade the medical experts in front of them, specialists with years of experience and knowledge. They show them the medical charts, the ones that say their chiseled bodies are not quite right. They give them the prognosis, which often isn't all good news.

And then they look them in the eye -- that is, if both of them are functioning -- and ask them to make an educated decision, as if we all don't already know how they are going to answer.

Well, Alonzo, as your doctor, I must tell you that there's some risk that you could aggravate your kidney condition if you play again right now, but do you want to give it a try anyway?

Geez, what do you think he's going to say?

Of course he's going to want to play again. That's what athletes do. Players want to play. Playing is what they do. In some extreme cases, it's who they are. Take that away and you take away the person.

Seemingly, it was that intoxicating desire to play that led Mourning, the Miami Heat's star center, to make his NBA season debut Tuesday night after battling a serious kidney ailment.

It's why Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon also returned to the court Tuesday night even though the blood clot in his leg was expected to possibly end his career.

It's why Troy Aikman wants to keep playing football even though he's had a zillion concussions and twice as many people tell him he should quit.

And why NASCAR driver Ernie Irvan raced and raced with blurred vision in one eye before finally calling it quits.

Players want to play.

Remember Reggie Lewis?

We can't really blame them for wanting to get back out there because we want them out there too. Of course we do. We want Grant Hill to endure the pain in his surgically repaired ankle so he can help deliver the division and conference championships that his pairing with Tracy McGrady seemed to almost guarantee the Magic.

We want Nomar and Derek to be there on Opening Day because they are who we are coming to see. We wanted Michael Jordan to play in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals even though he looked like death warmed over because we didn't know how many times we might see him again.

We assume they are smart enough not to listen to us, and not dumb enough to listen to themselves. But you know what they say about assuming things.

Take Mourning. He consulted with doctors, his agent, friends and family, but ultimately everyone said the decision to play this season was his. Mind you, he is confined to a strict diet, regular tests and a routine of 14 pills a day.

He is in remission, but he is certainly not cured. He still has undesired levels of protein in his blood and must have his blood and urine tested twice a week.

Doctors have told him that playing again could aggravate his condition, but that it shouldn't pose a "significantly greater risk."

"A well-trained athlete like he is, is going to know what the limitations of his own body are," Dr. David Roth, chief of nephrology at the University of Miami, told the Miami Herald. "He's going to judge that better than anybody as he returns to the level of play that is required."

So, everyone left the decision up to Zo. And Zo did what players do. He played.

But isn't letting Zo make the decision sort of like letting a boxer, punch-drunk and glossy-eyed, decide if he wants to keep fighting? I mean, everyone is trying to protect Zo, but who is trying to protect Zo from Zo?

Remember former NASCAR driver Neil Bonnett? He once told me that he never listened to doctors' advice when he was recovering from an injury. "I'd do what they say to do and then try to accelerate it," he said.

That was just before he ignored doctors' advice to quit the sport and was killed in a crash in 1994.

That's not to say Aikman or Mourning or Olajuwon is making the wrong decision and putting his health at great risk. Look at the Spurs' Sean Elliott. He is doing just fine since his kidney transplant.

But too often it seems like caution is taking a backseat to competitiveness. Olajuwon, for instance, was thought to be lost for the season because of the blood clot. He returned after just two weeks.

Mourning, too, was initially told by doctors to sit out the entire season, then decide whether to play again. But, presto, he's back and, not coincidentally, just in time for the playoffs next month.

What's the rush?

"Every time I step on the court," Mourning said, "I'm afraid. I'm scared."

We are, too.

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