NBA Hall of Fame center Alonzo Mourning is cancer free after undergoing surgery to have his prostate removed in March following a diagnosis of stage 3 cancer.

Mourning, 54, said ESPN on Monday the cancer did not spread, and he was informed about it two months ago during a normal prostate screening, which showed that he had a Gleason score of 8 – a high grade of prostate cancer.

‘What bothers me about this disease is that there are so many men walking around feeling wonderful and have that cancer in them and they don’t know it,’ Mourning added.

‘

The only method to find out is to get their blood tested and get their PSA (prostate-specific antigen) examined. 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 men.’

Bill Walton and O.J. Simpson both recently died following bouts with prostate cancer.

 

On Monday, retired NBA center Alonzo Mourning declared that he was cancer free for the first time since his prostate diagnosis in March

Mourning, director of player program and development for the Miami Heat since retiring in 2008, was a seven-time All-Star and NBA champion with Shaquille O’Neal.

He is also an Olympic gold medalist spanning 15 seasons in the NBA with the Charlotte Hornets (1992-95), Heat (1995-2002; 2004-08) and New Jersey Nets (2003-04).

He missed the 2002-03 season with renal illness and got a kidney transplant in 2003.

‘I was in shock. I can’t tell you enough about how good my body felt.

‘I was in top-notch shape – running sprint, strong,’ Mourning recalled of his prostate cancer diagnosis.