Scott said that such heated exchanges do not happen often.

''I don't know if it's once a year; it's not once a week,'' he said. ''It's not once a year, either. I'm not upset about it.''

He said he went to his assistant coaches, Larry Drew and Don Newman, and told them: ''This is a great practice, a great practice.''

Jason Kidd, who returned to the Nets this season partly because he was able to lure Mourning to join him, was at the other end of the court, shooting on his own, when the incident began, and he remained there through most of it.

''You've got to have that intensity if you want to be successful,'' Kidd said. ''The intensity between Zo and Kenyon, that's going to happen. You've got two warriors going at it to help their teams win. It's a good, spirited practice. You need that. What happens on the court stays on the court. That's the end of it.''

Although players and coaches tried to play the incident down, the words dealt with touchy subjects.

Mourning was clearly angered that Martin raised the issue of his kidney ailment. Mourning sees a doctor at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center regularly, gets weekly injections of medication and has his blood and chemical levels monitored closely.

Because Mourning, 33, is risking his long-term health and his N.B.A. legacy for a shot at his first championship, he has had some difficulty relating to younger players who have already been to the finals.

Mourning said that he felt ''cocky and invincible'' when he was younger, but that the possibility of having to undergo dialysis or a kidney transplant had made him take less for granted. These days, he must strictly monitor his diet, he usually stays in his hotel room on road trips and he is not allowed to take anti-inflammatory medication.