MIAMI -- He's a 6-foot-10 multimillionaire celebrity, and yet in one respect he's just like everybody else. Alonzo Mourning hates going to the doctor.

"I'm petrified,'' he says, "because I'm afraid of what they're going to tell me.''

Who can blame him? The news was pretty dreadful two years ago when Mourning learned he had a kidney disease that threatened his NBA career and might require a transplant.

These days he sees a physician every two weeks, and the visits are much more pleasant. Treatment sent the disease into remission, meaning his kidneys stopped deteriorating. Medication improved his blood pressure, hemoglobin and cholesterol, all affected by his ailment.

The Miami Heat center missed only seven games last season, playing so well he made the NBA All-Star team for the seventh time, and he looks forward to the start of training camp in six weeks.

"I feel a whole lot better than I did two years ago,'' Mourning says. "I don't have all the symptoms I was dealing with before.''

Mourning sits at a desk in his agent's office. Because his next stop will be the gym for a workout, he wears shorts and a sleeveless jersey, revealing an imposing physique that makes it difficult to believe the man has ever been sick.

He was, especially when first diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Partly in reaction to the strong medication he began taking, Mourning battled stiff, swollen joints, mood swings and fatigue. He found it hard to eat or sleep, much less play basketball.

"It was difficult for me to live, man,'' Mourning says in his earnest baritone. "The first three months, I was buckled over. My body wasn't used to taking all that stuff. It just shocked my body. It was like a slight form of chemo I was going through.''

He battled the disease with defiance, and his condition gradually improved. But even early last season, when Mourning was averaging 32 minutes a game, basketball left him with little energy for his wife, Tracy, or their two children.

"It made it tough for my wife,'' he says. "She was like, 'We can't live like this. You lie down and you're through for the rest of the day.'''

The problem was anemia, which often afflicts patients with kidney problems. His body lacked enough red-blood cells to carry sufficient oxygen to tissues and organs.

A drug dramatically improved his strength and stamina, and other adjustments in medication and diet also helped. He cut his pill intake in half but still takes at least six a day, and he says natural herbal supplements from a holistic doctor boosted his immune system. He's on a low-sodium diet, takes B-12 shots and noticed a change in his energy level at his annual all-star charity event in Miami last month.

"I played the whole game, man,'' the 32-year-old Mourning says, sounding surprised to last all 48 minutes.

Sean Elliott of the San Antonio Spurs contracted focal glomerulosclerosis and required a transplant in 1999. Now Mourning is trying to play with a more serious form of the disease, which makes him a 260-pound laboratory subject.

"There are a lot of unusual aspects to this case,'' says Dr. Victor Richards, a Miami nephrologist who has treated Mourning since he was first diagnosed. "Because of his size, the dosage of medication has to be reconsidered. And we don't usually have someone with this disease who has to exert so much physical energy.''

Mourning says one of his other doctors referred to him as a "test rat.''

Mourning says the charity he established, Zo's Fund for Life, has raised $2 million for kidney research, and he donated another $2 million.

The world's tallest advocate for kidney research cracks a grin as he acknowledges an ulterior motive for raising money and awareness.

"In the future there's a possible day of transplantation for me,'' he says. "Hopefully the Fund for Life will help find a cure before that happens.''

His latest endeavor is assisting a national campaign called Rebound from Anemia, launched Monday to educate patients about the debilitating condition.

Mourning ended last season encouraged about his health but disappointed about the Heat's 36-46 record, their worst since he came to Miami in 1995. Coach Pat Riley will probably shake up the roster, and that could include trading the center, who will make $20.6 million in the final season of a seven-year deal.

Riley says he intends to re-sign Mourning, but uncertainty about Zo's health could complicate negotiations. Mourning says there have been no contract talks, and he declined to say whether he would play for less to stay in Miami.

"I would love to finish my career here,'' he says. "I think it's only fitting that I do, looking at myself as a pillar to this community. ...

"But if it doesn't happen, life goes on.''

Life goes on. Spoken by Mourning, the cliche becomes a battle charge.