October 9, 2000

Miami, Florida—The basketball world is holding its breath, waiting to hear how severe Alonzo Mourning’s kidney ailment actually is.  While we wait, a word should be said about the flimsy way in which franchise doctors seem to be monitoring the health of their players.

Swirling around the borage of news stories covering Mourning’s mysterious health problems have been allegations that the Miami center may have  “popped” anti-inflammatory pills earlier in his career in order to placate the pain in his knees.  Speculation suggests that these pills could have a damaging, possibly fatal effect on a person’s kidneys.  San Antonio Spur Sean Elliott believes that his kidney disease, leading to kidney failure, was in all likelihood caused by the pills he took to contend with his agonizing knee troubles.

Are franchise and university doctors aware that athletes are abusing pain-relief pills in this way?  Is this kind of behavior endorsed?  Or are the athletes getting their drugs from sketchy sources not associated with team health physicians?

Oliver Stone’s portrayal of the shady side of health care in professional sports, in his recent movie Any Given Sunday, popularized skepticism toward the kinds of unethical health practices that put the lives of unsuspecting athletes at risk.  We hope that Stone’s portrayal is at best fictional, and at worst, hyperbolic.  

If Alonzo Mourning was having knee problems, he should have been put on the kind of pill diet that would have helped him cope with the pain while not putting his kidneys, or any other vital organ, like his heart, at risk.  Students of Michael Jordan’s career know that after he suffered the injury that side-lined him for his second season, not a night went by that he didn’t thoroughly ice his legs and feet after a game.  Was this kind of therapy suggested to Mourning, or was he taking the easy way out by opting to pop the pill?

As a doctor, one can never force a patient to take one’s expert advice.  One can, however, forcefully etch into the athlete’s mind a picture of his or her future if he or she abuses pain relief medicine.  One can also make the player’s coach aware that the athlete is putting his or her life at risk.

The basketball community is praying that Mourning’s ailment is only minor, and that he will recover quickly from it.  In the meantime, it’s high-time trainers and doctors get together to try to figure out how to make sure that they are able to prevent drug abuse in sports.  Athletes should be taught to train responsibly, with an eye toward preventing injury as much as strengthening their basketball skills and bodies.  Sports medicine experts should also teach athletes how to properly recover from injuries, when to let up when they are injured, how to properly stretch and warm-up before games and practices, and how to cool down and ice afterwards

Doctors should also commit themselves to admonishing athletes when they pill pop in order to obtain momentary reprieve from joint or back pain.  Whatever short-term relief comes from this kind of practice will be dwarfed in comparison to the agony of cancer, kidney failure or heart disease.

10/11/2000

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