The NBA hasn’t seen many centers better than Alonzo Mourning in his prime. Mourning, a seven-time NBA All-Star, won the Defensive Player of the Year award twice in back-to-back years (1999, 2000). He’d be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014 as recognition of his incredible NBA career.
The Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets legend has played alongside some incredible names over his career. He was asked to name his five favorite by Udonis Haslem in a recent appearance on ‘The OGs.’
“You (Udonis Haslem) because I knew in the trenches, I could go to war with you and I could count on you. Another one would be PJ Brown. Tim Hardaway. Dwyane Wade. And a lot of people… I’m a little biased with this because I’m a straight defensive guy. I think of Keith Askins and what he brought. Toughness. He embodied Heat culture. He was nasty on the court, and people hated him when he guarded them.”
There are plenty of elite teammates Mourning had who weren’t mentioned here. His one-year stint on the New Jersey Nets in 2003-04 saw him share the court with the likes of Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, and Kenyon Martin, although it seems that stint was too short for Mourning to name them over the guys he shared the locker room with for longer.
A bigger absence could be Larry Johnson from his time on the Hornets, but the fact that Mourning named all former Heat players to Haslem shows he was likely favoring his stint with the team he now serves as Vice President of Player Programs and Development.
If that is the case, the biggest absence in the name comes to mind. Mourning shared the frontcourt with Shaquille O’Neal for three seasons on the Heat, with the pair even winning the 2006 NBA Championship together.
However, Mourning and Shaq were bitter rivals before they were ever teammates, so it makes sense for him not to be mentioned in this case.
Alonzo Mourning And Shaquille O’Neal Have A Deep Friendship
What Mourning said about his favorite teammates shouldn’t be taken as a shot to Shaq because he had the spent the minutes prior to naming his favorite teammates discussing his relationship with Shaq.
“I liked the thing between me and the big fella. We complemented each other because we pushed each other. I got on his a*s. One day, we were in a drill. He tapped me on my shoulder and said, ‘Slow down, because if you go hard, I gotta go hard.’ I said, ‘F**k you! You’re making $20 million a year, I’m making the minimum, I gotta be ready in case your big a*s goes down.'”
“Through that, we developed a real brotherly relationship. When he called me to bring him into the Hall, I was taken back. I wasn’t expecting that call… I looked at it as a total respect and honor to do that. But a lot of that was because of the trust we developed together in pushing each other and winning. I was candid with him, and that was his way of showing his appreciation.”
Mourning went from a rival to being O’Neal’s backup in Miami, with the pair developing a strong relationship over that time. It was so strong that Shaq wanted to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016 by Mourning.
