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11/24/2003 Archived Entry: "Alonzo Mourning retires"
Alonzo Mourning retires
New Jersey Nets center Alonzo Mourning, who battled back from a kidney ailment to sign with the Nets and return to the court this season, has been forced to retire due to a recurrence of the kidney disease. A nationwide donor search is in progress, and Mourning will undergo a kidney transplant within months.
I didn't much care for Mourning when he started his career for Charlotte, and when he went to play for Pat Riley's Miami Heat, I initially loathed him. As a long-suffering Knicks fan, those playoff battles between Ewing's Knicks and 'Zo's Heat were the hoops equivalent of bare-knuckle boxing. And when that brawl erupted in the 1997 Eastern Conference playoffs - suspending 5 Knicks players and costing them the season - my rage at Riley's team and Mourning reached its peak.
But 'Zo proved himself to be a tough player and a classy human being off the court, and as time went by and tempers cooled, I found myself with a grudging respect for the other Number 33 in the East. Even when Mourning and Larry Johnson squared off in Game 4 of the Conference Finals the following season, I found myself more amused at Jeff Van Gundy's intervention (he ended up wrapped around Mourning's leg, holding on for dear life) than bothered by the fight (in which niether Mourning nor Johnson landed a punch, but both were suspended anyway).
It says a lot when a guy who has enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his life risks his health and well-being to play the game he loves. Mourning did that when he signed with the Nets.
I was watching the Knicks game tonight, and Clyde Frazier put it perfectly - 'Mourning's done more than enough here. It's time for him to relax and enjoy his life.'
Update: Newsday's Shawn Powell says it better than me.
Replies: somebody speaks up.
I feel the same way about Mourning. That he was an egotistical jerk early in his career, but as he got older he toned down his arrogance, and seemed to be genuine guy.
Anyway, I’m giving thanks to every blogger who’s been kind enough to link to my site on their blogroll. As a show of my appreciation I am leaving an excerpt from my glorious NaNoWriMo novel in the comments fields of each and everyone’s blogs. To read the section from my novel in its entirety, grab a box of tissues, click on the link to my site, and let the magic flow. Happy Thanksgiving. Now, on with the excerpt…
Count von Hasselhoffer wished Dame Maggie Percival Chatterlily would just shut-up about the Red Bull and let him win at least one game of Pong. He was a Count after all, and she should have the decency to throw a game or two for him. He wasn’t use to losing, for all his life his nannies and concubines had let him win at Pong. Just who did Dame Maggie Percival Chatterlily think she was as she beat him so effortlessly?
Posted by cmonks @ 11/25/2003 11:01 AM NY
