‘Zo

The blizzog would like to take a moment to pay a brief tribute to the career of Alonzo Mourning, cut short yesterday by a three-year battle with a kidney ailment. Though I was never a big Georgetown fan or Miami Heat fan, I was always an Alonzo Mourning fan. He is a throwback to the type of player that is sorely lacking in the NBA these days: a natural talent who turned himself from a good player into a great player by sheer work-ethic and desire.

I don’t know if it’s the money or the bling-bling culture or SportsCenter or what it is, but the professional sports leagues – the NBA in particular – are now filled with good players that are not willing to put the time in to make themselves great players. And we the fans are suffering as a result. The NBA has its top 2% of stars as it always has – Kobe, Shaq, AI, etc. The real difference to me in the NBA now versus when I started watching in the late 80s is the 4th through 8th guys on the roster.

By and large, these days you have two to three good players on a team and then a bunch of inconsistent chumps to fill out the rest of the spots. These guys are not untalented, they are just too spoiled by the riches of their contracts to put in the work needed to make them great players. The two or three good players are often not as good as they could be either. Vince Carter is a perfect example of a top-tier guy with tremendous talent that seems unwilling to step away from the PlayStation long enough to do the things it takes to make him a complete player.

Mourning is the type of player I wish I would see more of in the league these days. He was a very talented college player, but he did not just rest on that once he got to the league. He worked tirelessly to make himself better and became a force on the Riley Heat teams of the mid-90s.

Farewell, Alonzo. Good luck in your recovery and thanks for the memories. There aren’t enough of you around anymore.