Great news has come out about a former NBA star.
On June 3, multiple reports confirmed former longtime Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning underwent a successful surgery to remove his prostate after he received a stage 3 cancer diagnosis.
Mourning said he found out about the diagnosis from a routine prostate cancer screening. Mourning removed his prostate in mid-March before the cancer spread to any other parts of his body.
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in men in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. In 2024 in the United States alone, there have been about 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer and 35,520 deaths from the disease. About 95 out of every 100 men with a stage 3 prostate cancer diagnosis survive five years or longer after the diagnosis.
“What scares me about this disease is that there are so many men walking around feeling great and have that cancer in them and they don’t know it,” Mourning said, according to ESPN. “The only way to find out is to get their blood tested and get their PSA checked. There are 3.3 million men living in the U.S. with prostate cancer, and many don’t even know it. I was one of those guys.”
He said he was recommended to visit a urologist in South Florida by someone at a social event.
“I was in shock,” he said to ESPN. “I can’t tell you enough about how well my body felt. I was in top-notch shape — running sprints, strong. The doctor told me that he couldn’t believe I had had a kidney transplant … Life was good and amazing for me, but if I had ignored getting checked and let this go, the cancer would’ve spread through my body.
“Unfortunately, as men, we don’t like to go to the doctor,” the former NBA player observed. “But this is the only way to find out what’s going on in your body. Prostate and even colon cancer are silent killers, and many men won’t get those diagnoses until it’s too late.”
“We live in a world where it’s taboo among men to talk about health issues,” Mourning stated. “If I didn’t get routine checkups, I probably wouldn’t be here to talk about this. I want men to be proactive with their health.”
