Although the man certainly will be missed at the start of Heat camp, some of the moments will not. Too much heartbreak these past few Octobers. Too little hope these past three years.

Already last week, Nets coach Byron Scott was dealing with questions regarding Alonzo Mourning's health, about how much could be expected from the veteran center in light of his ongoing kidney illness.

"Twenty, 25 minutes a game is what I'm looking for right now and nothing else besides that," said Scott, whose front office gambled $22 million over four seasons on Mourning on this summer's free-agent market. "I think we would all be kind of crazy to think that Zo's going to play every single game.

"If we can get him where he's playing 50, 60 games and he's in unbelievable shape getting to the playoffs, that's what I'm looking for."

By the end of his Heat tenure, inquiries into his health began to wear on Mourning. It is a lesson Scott already has learned.

"He came in here right after Labor Day, on Sept. 2, and we started working with him," Scott said to a group of reporters last week at the Nets' practice facility in East Rutherford, N.J. "And I found myself asking him, `How do you feel?' And what I found out the next day is that he didn't like that. He'd give me a look like, `I'm fine.'

"He's heard that question for three or four years. He's to the point where he's sick of it. It's almost like showing him pity, and he doesn't want pity."