- 21 hours ago
Zo
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:00Now goes Pacioretta!
00:02Now goes Pacioretta!
00:17They've won their sixth NBA championship!
00:22This is gonna be an all-round unbelievable!
00:26Don't believe what I just saw!
00:40...like a top cop.
00:41Blessed with the power and speed of a running back, Alonzo...
00:47...every game, on every play.
00:49On defense, the 6'10 center flashed through the paint to punish a penetrator
00:54and swept the boards like an avenging angel.
00:56With the ball, he was tough to stop, averaging 21 points a game.
01:01Then, in October of 2000, the five-time All-Star was attacked from within by a deadly enemy that would
01:08challenge the
01:09deepest levels of his strength and resolve.
01:17So is a beast. An absolute beast. And I say that in a very complimentary way.
01:23Oh!
01:25Did you see that?
01:28Pat Riley's favorite expression, a guy like Zo, is calling him a warrior.
01:32Guys who will give it their all, 100% on the court for that W.
01:36They don't care about stats. They care about victories. And Zo embodied that.
01:42Now start out slow, baby! Hop right on!
01:45He was an absolute effort player who had the biggest heart of any man that I've ever coached.
01:51For his size, he's probably the hardest working guy who played that position in the NBA.
01:59He was Bill Russell reincarnated.
02:01You couldn't drive the middle without Zo either getting the ball or getting a piece of you.
02:05And a lot of times he intimidated guys from driving around the middle.
02:08He wasn't Bill Russell incarnated.
02:12Bill Russell couldn't score.
02:15He was going to put them on their butts.
02:17Oh!
02:20There's a guy that goes all out.
02:22He'd probably run his mother over if she would have the basketball to get it from her.
02:28He was very intense at all times on the court.
02:31He'd scream at himself. He'd scream at his other players.
02:35He was one of the most intense basketball players I'd ever seen.
02:40I asked him, he said,
02:41So what do you think if someone who didn't know anything about you,
02:45watched you in a game,
02:48just based purely on your demeanor,
02:51what do you think that person's opinion of you would be as a human being?
02:55He says, a madman.
02:57An absolute crazy person who you wouldn't want to be around.
03:02His competitive nature would not allow a lot of people to like him.
03:07He was not there to be liked.
03:09And I really don't want to fraternize you after the game,
03:12because I got to play you again in three nights.
03:14So this does not lend itself to you being named Mr. Goodgeniality.
03:21He played the villain.
03:22He was the guy with the scowl and the attitude.
03:25So was theatric.
03:26And there were always players in the league who thought that those weren't sincere theatrics,
03:30that it was a show that he was trying to get in your head.
03:33I remember earlier in his career he would go like this after a move, you know,
03:36those were the kinds of things that were turning people off in a sense about Zo the person.
03:42He shows it in a way out there on the court where it's negative.
03:49And I was telling him, just calm down, you know, calm down, stop yelling at the ref.
03:53Be careful, Zo.
03:55We'll do the side, Zo.
03:57Oh, oh, oh.
03:58He just threw Alonzo Mourning out of the game.
04:00One time, Vitaly Batampago got him ejected from a game with a double technical.
04:05Pat Riley, after the game, goes in and tells the media that's Alonzo's fault.
04:08He has to know better.
04:10We go to Alonzo in the locker room.
04:11He was livid.
04:12He still didn't fully get it.
04:14The rage and the technicals and the anger, it took away from the player he could be.
04:19The source of Alonzo Mourning's volatility is a passionate commitment so strong it has sometimes overpowered his judgment.
04:27Off the court, he stored that passion behind a scowl that the public perceived as arrogance.
04:34A lot of people will walk up to Alonzo and say, can I take a picture with you?
04:38And Alonzo always said no.
04:44How inappropriate it was for me to ask that question at 11 o'clock in the morning on a game
04:50day.
04:50It would have taken him all of 30 seconds simply to answer the question and walk away.
04:54How does it happen?
04:56I'm human.
04:57That's how it can happen.
05:00Next question.
05:02How does it happen?
05:03He was never the kind of guy that walked in and had a big huge grin on his face and
05:11running around saying hi to everybody and shaking hands and kissing babies.
05:15That was never him.
05:16He took life serious from the time he was able to remember.
05:22Life was no joke to him and he didn't look at it as a joke.
05:27Yep.
05:30Of the season where Zoe and I were clashing, Zoe said to me, I want to talk to you after
05:36practice.
05:37Fine.
05:38And we spent two hours talking.
05:40He had to tell me about who he was, where he came from, what he was like.
05:44He said, well, I'm not proud of some of the things I did when I was a young man.
05:48How he was brought up and how he had gotten to this point in his life.
05:54Born on February 8th, 1970, Mourning was the only son of Alonzo Senior, a machinist in the shipyards of Portsmouth,
06:02Virginia.
06:02His mother, Julia, was a devout Jehovah's Witness.
06:06Tumultuous, best described his parents' relationship.
06:10A lot of times you just rebel to respond to any type of those circumstances.
06:15And that's what I did.
06:16There was a lot of rebellion there.
06:17And he had problems with me.
06:19And then there was counseling and therapy and all of that stuff.
06:26His parents decided to divorce.
06:30And they asked him who he wanted to live with.
06:33And rather than make a choice and hurt one's feelings, he said he didn't want to live with either one
06:38of them.
06:39And my gut was that I didn't want to be a part of any of that.
06:42Man, I love my family dearly.
06:44And so I stayed in the foster care system for a while.
06:48When Alonzo was 11, he became a ward of the state of Virginia and lived in a group home with
06:53a dozen other children, some emotionally disturbed.
06:57A year later, Mourning's prospects brightened when Fanny and Bud Threat accepted him into their family.
07:05When I came in the house and I saw...
07:08Mourning, who was six feet in the seventh grade, focused on basketball.
07:13At Indian River High School, he led the team to 51 straight victories, including a state championship as a junior
07:19in 1987.
07:20As a senior, he averaged 25 points, 15 rebounds, and 12 blocked shots.
07:27I remember walking away thinking, well, geez, he's way better than any center we have on the Kings right now.
07:34Despite a barrage of college scholarship offers, Mourning was predisposed towards Georgetown, where the basketball program seemed ideally suited to
07:43his needs.
07:45I knew that he was a kid that definitely was in search of the identity of the other part of
07:53his life.
07:53There were so many things we were talking about, and a lot of times it wasn't even about basketball, we
07:58were talking about life.
08:03As a freshman, Mourning's emergence as the nation's top shot blocker helped Georgetown win the Big East regular season and
08:10tournament titles.
08:11By emulating coach John Thompson's hard-nosed manner, the 6'10 center came to symbolize a mindset that often beset
08:19the competition.
08:19It was known as Hoya Paranoia.
08:22John Thompson somehow instilled this chip right on these guys' massive shoulders.
08:28This angry chip. It's us against the world chip.
08:34Everything John Thompson wanted him to do, he did to the fullest.
08:38I don't want you talking to anybody. Everything we do is intimidating.
08:41Alonzo had it down, though.
08:45Yes, sir.
08:46But even while he followed Thompson's strict code of conduct, Mourning befriended a self-professed Hoya's fanatic named Raphael Edmund.
08:54It was a connection that would draw negative attention.
08:57Why?
08:58All of a sudden, the federal authorities were closing in on Edmund.
09:03And Alonzo kept popping up on tapes or photographs.
09:06Now he was being labeled an associate of one of the biggest drug kingpins in Washington, D.C.
09:13It was a guilt by association. I never did anything wrong. I was never involved in any type of unlawful
09:21things. But the damage had already been done. And I had to testify. And by me testifying, obviously, I'm petrified.
09:29He was like, man, I could go to jail.
09:33To protect Mourning, Thompson headed straight to the source.
09:38Much of a hard case and a hard worker to do drugs.
09:43John Thompson went and sought out Raphael Edmunds and told him, look, man, you got to stay away from my
09:51kid.
09:52He had him come up to the Georgetown gym and coach said, look, you know, I don't want you around
09:57my players.
09:58I understand what you do. That's your business.
10:01If you're a true fan of Georgetown, you would respect that. And he did.
10:07In November of 1989, Mourning testified at Edmund's trial, but was not implicated in any illegal activities.
10:14Edmund was found guilty of.
10:15My father.
10:18My biological father. He was there.
10:23Congratulations.
10:24He went up to Big John and he told him, thank you for being there for my son.
10:30I don't think that you can.
10:33Joe was exactly the kind of player that every franchise hopes they can draft every 20 or 30 years.
10:41Yep.
10:42After arriving in Charlotte in the fall of 1992, Alonzo Mourning was instrumental in the young franchise making its first
10:48playoff appearance.
10:49Here's the Hornets' promise of a strong future would be dashed by divisive forces from within.
11:03Larry Johnson had established himself as a very powerful force in the locker room.
11:08And then here comes Alonzo, who is also very powerful.
11:10And I don't know that those two ever really meshed.
11:15It was very easy to gravitate to Larry.
11:17Larry could go in a room and he could light up the whole room.
11:20Alonzo, he was much more reserved.
11:23There was a battle for the soul of the team and they came at it from different directions.
11:27Maybe it was just inevitable that the way that those two played and the way their personalities were that it
11:32was not going to be what it might have been.
11:34In 1993, tensions mounted further when the Hornets awarded Larry Johnson an $84 million 12-year contract.
11:44When it was Alonzo's turn to come around for his contract, the negotiations were much harder, much longer.
11:52When negotiations broke down, then relationships broke down and then it was just irreversible.
12:02In 1995, after Mourning turned down the Hornets' final offer of $78 million over seven years,
12:09he was traded to Miami, where his new coach, Pat Riley, welcomed him with an eager heart.
12:14Pat Riley was a big man coach.
12:17He had played with Wilt Chamberlain.
12:20He had coached Kareem.
12:23He had coached Patrick Ewing.
12:24And now he gets Alonzo Mourning.
12:26It was a perfect fit between a coach and a player that seemed to have the same type of attitude,
12:34the same type of aggressiveness, the same type of competitiveness from day one when Zoe arrived.
12:40About Larry Johnson who got the contract.
12:42He didn't make the playoffs with the Hortons before or after Mourning was there, but he got the contract.
12:51Mistake.
12:54I think everybody felt this, this is going to work.
12:56But he said to Pat Riley, Coach, how many games do you realistically think your team can win on this
13:03road trip?
13:03And Pat says, we want to win all of them.
13:06And then Zoe looked at me and he said, that's why I love the man.
13:09And we went out and won all six games.
13:16What happened with Riley is that Alonzo's offensive game grew dramatically.
13:21Someone who could face the basket and shoot.
13:24Someone inside went jump hook.
13:26He became a complete player.
13:32In his second season at Miami, Mourning, armed with a $105 million seven year contract,
13:39powered the Heat to a franchise record 61 victories in the Eastern Conference final.
13:44A year later, the Heat met the Knicks in the first round of the 1998 playoffs.
13:49In the waning minutes of game four, Mourning and his former teammate Larry Johnson decided to settle old differences.
13:57You see the two of them at the far end of the court.
13:59And you say to yourself, everyone thinks back.
14:01We know about the history in Charlotte.
14:03We know about the innuendo and the relationship.
14:05And you're just saying to yourself, those two guys shouldn't be standing together.
14:09The fight is broken out between Mourning and Johnson.
14:12This could have a few criminal cases on Sunday.
14:15Game five on Sunday.
14:17Pat Riley screamed out, no Alonzo, no.
14:20Mourning completely lost his court.
14:21Mourning cannot believe it.
14:23Can't believe it.
14:25These guys couldn't land a toy airplane.
14:29And when he walked off the court with Alonzo Mourning, you could see it in their face.
14:32They both knew that Alonzo Mourning had made the biggest mistake of his career.
14:37I still pressed against the wall in the corridor, seeing opportunity slip away as it did.
14:46That was the feeling that Alonzo still hasn't found it.
14:50You know, he still hasn't reached himself.
14:51He hasn't become what he needs to be to be a player who could be fierce and aggressive, but still
14:56under control.
14:57That's the one they need him to be.
14:59With Mourning and Johnson suspended for game five, Miami dropped the deciding contest by 17 points.
15:06There's an old saying, until you change the way you look at things, those things that you look at will
15:15never change.
15:16And this made Zoe change.
15:18It really did.
15:19You could see he felt he let his teammates down and had to focus his energy in a different way.
15:26And ever since that day, I could see a change in attitude on the court when it came to any
15:31extracurricular stuff.
15:32It was the turning point for him. Opposing players had more respect for him. Opposing coaches, the media.
15:39He started to become very accessible to people and people started to really respect Zoe the person, not just Zoe
15:46the player.
15:47And that's when it all came together.
15:50We would tell her, honey, I'll be home at noon.
15:53And she'd look at the clock because they had somewhere to go.
15:56And she'd go, it's 12, he's not here.
15:58He comes in the house and she's just looking at him and he goes, had a bad day.
16:03I went and stopped by and visited foster homes and spend time with foster kids.
16:09That's how he wound down.
16:12Samantha.
16:14Hey, lady.
16:15Hi, how was them?
16:17Oh, yeah, it's yours.
16:20I think about all the people who play a role in my developmental process
16:27as a person and as a player.
16:30I look at all the things that were given to me.
16:35The giving made an impact on my life.
16:39By 2000, Alonzo Mourning had changed himself into a respected community leader.
16:44While playing for the U.S. Olympic team in Australia, he celebrated the birth of his second child, a daughter.
16:50For perhaps the first time, Mourning's life was sailing through calm waters.
16:55But before the U.S. won its gold medal, Mourning felt sick.
16:59When he returned to Miami, he saw a kidney specialist.
17:02I said, what's the matter, doc? Tell him what's wrong.
17:05And he said, well, you have a kidney disease.
17:08He said, it's very rare.
17:10We can treat you, but there's no cure for it.
17:14At 30, Mourning was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a disease that attacks the kidneys.
17:22We were just scared, just terribly scared, and we thought we were going to lose him.
17:29There was a time where I would just look at Alonzo and start crying, you know, just...
17:34And he would look at me like, could you stop it, please?
17:38You're not helping.
17:39But it was because I didn't know what to say.
17:41I didn't know what to do.
17:44Then he realized by playing...
17:46After his comeback season, Mourning suffered a relapse.
17:50His kidney disease forced him to miss the 2003 campaign.
17:54With his heat contract expired, Mourning was a free agent.
17:58Seemingly healthy again, he signed with the Nets for $22.6 million over four years,
18:04only to be forced to the sideline after just 12 games.
18:07Once you get into a certain level of kidney function, which is in the more advanced stages of failure,
18:13the kidney will continue to deteriorate.
18:15Once that happens, you say, okay, we have to make plans.
18:22Right before the surgery, it was actually a pleasant feeling.
18:26And I knew if it didn't work out that, hey, I lived a great life.
18:30Been on the surgery 34 years, and I lived an incredible life.
18:35After a successful kidney transplant in December of 2003, Mourning returned to the game the following fall.
18:42But he and the Nets fell into a bitter dispute.
18:48Alonzo Mourning, who was paid all last season by the Nets, despite the fact he played only a handful of
18:53games.
18:53That Alonzo Mourning had bought some buyout from the Nets, so he can join a team with a better chance
18:58to win an NBA championship, which he's obsessed with.
19:00When Alonzo Mourning came back and rejoined the Nets, pretty much they had blown the team up.
19:06They decided to go in a different direction.
19:08Not a team capable of winning an NBA championship, and I think that's what Alonzo Mourning saw when he came
19:12back.
19:13He's obviously very disappointed.
19:14It was a tough time.
19:17You know, things weren't going great for us, and it was very vocal, and it just stayed in the newspapers
19:25on a daily basis.
19:26It was, oh, don't want to be here.
19:28In December of 2004, Mourning was traded to the Raptors, but he didn't report, and Toronto eventually bought out his
19:35contract.
19:36The door to a satisfying reunion was open.
19:40It took longer than expected, but some things are worth the wait.
19:44Like, let's say the-
19:44When I'm playing basketball, he finally gets his hands on that very old Brian Troper.
19:49This is ingrained in him from childhood, from being fostered under John Thompson and the Hoya paranoia,
19:56and it's something that we really saw when Pat Riley got a hold of him here with the Heat.
20:01It just molded something Enzo that was already in him.
20:05And until he gets that ring, this thing is not going to be fed.
20:10That's what he did.
20:12To me, whether he wins one or not is not going to change how I feel about him as a
20:17person, but I know it would give him a sense of peace.
20:21With kidney disease, Alonzo Mourning drew comfort and inspiration from Lance Armstrong's autobiography,
20:26which chronicled the cyclist's remarkable recovery from cancer to win his first Tour de France.
20:32Lance kept his mind and his heart strong, said Mourning, and eventually his body caught up.
20:37Such was the power of will that also lifted Mourning back from the sidelines.
20:41For SportsCentury, I'm Chris Fowler.
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