US Basketball Star Out With Mild Malaria
By Keith Parsons, The Associated Press

Atlanta, Georgia, USA - Atlanta Hawks basketball center Dikembe 
Mutombo has a mild case of malaria, and is expected to miss about 
two weeks.
	It's not life threatening, it's not career threatening, 
Hawks general manager Pete Babcock said Tuesday. It sounds 
terrible, but it's really like a bad case of the flu.
	Mutombo was hospitalized with a fever Monday in 
Springfield, Massachusetts, where the Hawks played in the NBA 
Hall of Fame exhibition game against the Boston Celtics. 
	Babcock said the team learned Mutombo had the disease at 
halftime of Monday's game.
	He was feeling better Sunday, and when we visited the Hall 
of Fame as a team, he went with us, Babcock said. 
	He started feeling worse and complained about having a high 
fever, and our trainer suggested he go to the hospital and get it 
checked out, he said.
	The Hawks don't know when Mutombo will be able to return. 
Atlanta opens the season Oct 31 against the Charlotte Hornets 
from the US state of North Carolina.
	According to the doctors, the medicine that he has been 
given will knock out the malaria completely, Babcock said. The 
doctors can't give a time frame of when he'll be back any more 
than they could if he had the flu.
	He'll come back whenever he's healthy and his body 
recovers.
	The 2.1-meter center was on his way back to Atlanta on 
Tuesday and not available for comment. Babcock said Mutombo would 
rest at home.
	Doctors believe Mutombo contracted the disease when he was 
bitten by a mosquito during a September trip to the Congo, 
Babcock said. Malaria, which is not contagious, is characterized 
by chills, fever and sweating.
	Mutombo, entering his 10th year in the NBA, averaged 11.5 
points and a league-leading 14.1 rebounds last season. He played 
at Georgetown with the Miami Heat's Alonzo Mourning, who 
announced Monday he will miss the upcoming season with a kidney 
disease.