Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel reports that the Heat have been denied in their bid to get salary cap relief for Alonzo Mourning. The NBA ruled the Heat is ineligible to receive a disabled player exception despite the deterioration of Alonzo Mourning's kidney illness.

An NBA spokesman said Wednesday that Mourning's illness is deemed to be the same as the one that sidelined the All-Star center for the first 69 games of the 2000-01 season and, therefore, that the league would not consider the waiver.

The disabled-player exception allows a team to replace a player who is expected to be sidelined for an entire season at either 50 percent of the player's salary or 108 percent of the league's average salary, whichever is less. Considering Mourning is to earn $20.6 million this season, the figure for the exception would have been about $4.5 million.

When Mourning was originally diagnosed with the kidney ailment, the Heat used the disabled player exception to acquire Cedric Ceballos during the 2000 season.