What If the Miami Heat Paired Alonzo Mourning With Jason Kidd? | Locked On Heat’s 25 Of 25

What If the Miami Heat Paired Alonzo Mourning With Jason Kidd? | Locked On Heat’s 25 Of 25

We look back at one of the greatest centers to play in team history. Does Alonzo Morning make Miami’s Mount Rushmore? We’ll answer that on today’s episode of Locked on Heat. [Music] You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat. Whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app. Thanks so much for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. I’m Wes Goldberg, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real GM radio. Here with David Ramil. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. And David, yesterday we talked about Miamiy’s refreshed plan for 2026. We talked about the potential ability to go get a star player, whether that’s through free agency or trade. So, look, if you missed that episode, you could find it up in your podcast feed or on YouTube. Today, we’re jumping right into our 25 of 25 series, looking back at the top 25 Heat players of the last 25 seasons. Each episode, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at every player who made the list as voted on by us and our Locked on Heat insider community through the lens of what made them a definitive part of the franchise’s history. Eddie Jones checked in at number 12. And now at number 11, just on the outside of the top 10, David, it’s the nononsense OG of Heat culture, the two-time defensive player of the year. He is on the Heat’s Mount Rushmore. It is Alonzo Morning. Alonzo Morning’s tenure with the Heat is one of the most defining eras in franchise history. Morning was acquired in November of 1995 when Miami acquired him from the Hornets in a trade for Glenn Rice, Matt Guyger, Khaled Reeves, and a first round pick. His arrival along with the hiring of head coach Pat Riley transformed the Heat from a young a young expansion franchise into an Eastern Conference contender. Morning quickly established himself as the heart of the team. Known for his fierce shot blocking defensive intensity and inside scoring, he became the Heat’s anchor throughout the late 1990s. He won back-to-back defensive player of the year awards in 1999 and in 2000, and he was named an all-star five times during his Miami tenure. Alongside Tim Hardaway, he led the Heat to four straight division titles from 1997 to 2000 with the highlight being a trip to the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals where Miami fell to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. But then came the turn of the millennium. In 2000, Zo was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease. I’m going to try to say it, David. Focal segmental glomeio sclerosis. Yes, nailed it. It was life-threatening condition. Still, he did try to play. He he uh but he could only suit up for 13 games in that season and then by 2002 he left the heat and sat out for a season then briefly played for the New Jersey Nets before returning to Miami in 2005. His comeback was crowned by an NBA championship in 2006 when Zo played a crucial role off the bench behind Shaq in the NBA finals against the Mavericks. Alonzo Morning retired in 2009 as the all the Heat’s all-time leader in blocks and one of the franchise’s most beloved figures. His jersey number 33 was the first number ever retired by the Miami Heat franchise. His combination of dominance, resilience, and loyalty cements him as the original Heat legend. David, I’m not sure I agree with that last statement there, but uh who would you put Heat legend? No. Uh the loyalty part. Oh, and I’ve always had a bone to pick for that. I think that’s interesting because I know it’ll probably come up throughout the episode, his return. Certainly one of the best moments I think of his career, just for him to come back here and to be able to cap what had been a fantastic career when he was clearly past his prime and to be able to still be an impactful player. and it went a long way towards erasing what I thought was a really terrible decision on his part. So, I I I think his choice to leave the team in 2002 um something that stuck with me uh a lot and I I remember at the time, I don’t even remember how old I was, but I remember being disappointed. In fact, even writing a a letter to Slam Magazine. Hm. This goes back and the first thing I ever wrote about basketball, I was so upset at the decision by Alonzo Morning that I wrote a letter Slam magazine. Uh after he he made his announcement, he he decided I remember he was on a a free agency tour, he was going to potentially join the San Antonio Spurs to be a backup for I guess Tim Duncan. Uh he’s gonna join the Boston Celtics. I don’t remember who their starter was, the Nets or the Boston Celtics. it was four teams that were vying for his interest there and then he chose ultimately to join the then New Jersey Nets and uh I thought it was a terrible decision especially at that point in time when they were being they had just come off a finals run if I’m not mistaken uh and they had that fast-paced offense with Jason Kidd, Vince Carter or Richard Jefferson I can’t remember who was who at that point in time but either way it was at that iteration of the New Jersey Nets and thinking what the hell is Alonzo going to even there on that team at that point in time in his career. And so, uh, it just stuck with me a little bit. And then he he went to Zoberg Group and I remember fans being somewhat disappointed at that point in time. And he addressed the crowd as he always does to kick off the tournament and saying he he’ll always bleed red and black. And then I remember, this is a big statement that the big sentence I put on the capper of my letter. I said, you know, he says he always bleed red and black, but it’s crucial to see that Alonzo only really cares about the color green because he chose to leave in New Jersey for money. That’s good. That’s that’s that’s gold. Yeah. Um, so anyway, I I really I was pissed off about it. I was Yeah, I was really pissed off about it because he he chose to join the the Nets and look a lot look Pat was playing hard ball as Pat does. He played it with Timmy a couple seasons earlier. is like, “Oh, you don’t want to play here? You want to get paid a lot of money? Sorry, chubby. Get out of here.” And just to the, you know, at that point, the best point guard in team history. And he just let him walk. And then Alonzo, those years that where he was on and off, not really much of an impact player. He missed the whole season previously. And then he’s like, “No, no, I’m healthy. I’m good. I’m entering free agency. Pat, are you going to pay me?” And Pat’s like, “Well, how about a a veteran minimum because we’re not really sure. Just a one-year prove it deal.” and he’s like, “Thanks, but no thanks.” And he chose to take the uh the long-term deal with the New Jersey Nets and uh wind up getting traded to Toronto. Of course, I end up facilitating being cut by that team so that he could rejoin the the Miami Heat a couple seasons later, but uh it was just it stuck with me, but uh I don’t want to make this all about that decision. No, but I am glad you bring that up because it’s part of the story, right? And specifically when we’re talking about the 25 of 25 series that we’re doing, we are talking about the last 25 years of Heat history that like the Tim Hardaway conversation covers very little of Allonzo Morning’s time with the Miami Heat and takes away a lot of his all of his best years. Now, fortunately for Zo, it includes the championship in 2006. So, there is that. Uh, and we’ll get to why that is and and how that factors into our ranking here and why Alonzo Morning is so much higher than Tim Hardaway. But yeah, I mean, you think about the last 25 years. You think about the year 2000, that is when Allonzo Morning has the kidney disease, is diagnosed with kidney disease, plays a little bit more for Miami, then he’s out of the league, and then we get into all the stuff that you were just talking about. And it’s really important that you lay all of that out because it is such a big part of his story. And I’m glad that you did that because I I was too young to really remember the interest. I I wasn’t writing to Slam Magazine, you know what I mean? Like I didn’t I wasn’t like tuned in to the contract negotiations and the demands and this stuff that obviously you were. I remember Zo in the late 90s just being like this larger than life blocking machine, a dominant center and just like our guy. Like that this was our Michael Jordan, you know, that’s that’s how it felt, you know, for a young Heat fan. It was like this is you have Michael Jordan, you have Patrick Euing, you have Shaquille, we have Alonzo Morning, this is our franchise guy and um you know never really getting over the hump and all that disappointment and all of that, but it was still our guy. So um I’m glad you let out some of that stuff there. He does come back, right? He comes back. He obviously mends fences with Pat Riley and now he’s essentially Pat Riley’s right-hand man in that front office. So he’s back with the team and maybe that’s where the loyalty part comes in. You know, Dwayne Wade was loyal even though he left, right? Like loyalty like it’s family, right? Like there’s there’s ups and downs, you know, there’s arguments, there’s people that just don’t talk to each other for years, but eventually at the end of the day, like the family that gets back together, right? And and for Zo, I think that he got back together with his family. So, um, you know, I do think it’s a big part of his story, though. Yeah, it it is hard to separate those first few years from the second part of his career, but uh it was an interesting journey. Like he was clearly Miami’s first superstar and and I do remember that feeling of he’s our superstar like at a point in time when the center position was so important and and Pat laid it out when he first traded what had been my previously favorite E player of all time which is Glenn Rice. Like I loved Glenn. I thought I was optimistic for what Pat would do with a shooter like that and excited about the upcoming season. And then you hear all about behind the scenes contract negotiations with George Shin if I’m not mistaken, the Charlotte Hornets Ross owner. And uh that Alonzo wanted to get paid more than his then teammate Larry Johnson who had been paid one of the largest contracts at I think it at that time was the largest contract in in NBA history. And Alonzo was upset and uh basically said, “You know what? I don’t want to play here. And this was not the era of Adrian Warowski or Sham Shirani or anything like that. So, you didn’t know about what was going on. You heard rumblings. Oh, this is going to go this is going to go south real quickly in Charlotte. Uh just wasn’t able to work out a deal. And then all of a sudden, you wake up one Tuesday and you see the front page of the Miami Herald saying Riley Lance Superstars morning and and it’s like what? And prior to that, I mean, Alonzo was an upand cominging star at a point in time when the center position, like I said, was so important. You had Shaq who was drafted the same year as Alonzo Morning. You had Patrick Huie, David Robinson, so many greats. Hakee loan, like all-time greats, the greatest, the greatest era for centers in NBA history. No question. And Zo was right there with them. He was he was right there with them. And he had just been uh in in that commercial from Charles Barkley, too. I don’t know how much you remember that like where he was asked like what up and cominging player was he going to be and Alonzo with all of his rage and fury in his pinstripe Charlotte Hornets uniform and he was just he was such a young star like on the rise a guy who’s viewed as Bill Russell to Shaquille O’Neal’s Will Chamberlain that that was just such an interesting thing the comparison between those two uh going one two in the draft that same year and then for Alonzo to be here in Miami it was a really amazing moment and history. Uh to think Charlotte could have had Alonzo Morning and Kobe Bryant. Wow. Talking about sliding doors moment there. Yeah. Right. Um a lot of what you’re talking about though happened before the turn of the millennium, before a 25 series really takes place. And that’s how we get into our rankings. We’re going to talk about that plus get to some trivia after this. Today’s episode is brought to you by FiveHour Energy Transfusion for the win. Time to fuel up and turn it up with Five Hour Energy Transfusion. This grape, ginger, and lime flavored shot brings the iconic taste of a golf course favorite to a non-alcoholic boost. Perfect for sinking birdies or making great memories with friends. It’s a wholein-one for your energy game. Whether you’re out on the course or just need a little extra push to power through your day, 5 hour energy transfusion delivers the clubhouse favor you love without ever leaving the green. I may not be a golfer, but I know uh being out on the course can take its toll. You want to be able to talk with your friends. You want to be able to enjoy the moment. You want to hit that big shot. Maybe place a little wager while you’re out in the course. And you know what? Maybe you just need that extra boost. And that’s what 5H hour energy transfusion is all about. Golf is all about good times with good people and good flavors. The grape ginger lime flavor of 5-hour energy transfusion gives you the best parts of your clubhouse go-to without leaving the course or chasing down the bevart. Now you can amp up the fun even more. Just buy snap and enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament in the USA. Tee up that trip. Visit 5hin.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Masters tournament. ends October 31st, 2025. We’ll be right back. [Music] Thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day. Here’s where Alonzo Morning ranked among our panel. The highest he ranked among the Lockdown Heat Insider community voters was three. Wow. The lowest he ranked, David, was 10. I had him at 17. You had him at 16. This is another example like with Tim Hardaway where the rules were confusing. Yeah. And people are adding those 90s years which were amazing to this ranking which is inaccurate. Right. We’re talking about the la the best 25 players of the last 25 years. And for Alonzo Morning his greatest seasons in a heat uniform happened prior to that cut off. So, I don’t blame any of the voters for ranking him as high as he did. I love that he’s on this list, but in terms of the parameters of our madeup thing here. Mhm. We’re talking about the kidney disease years and the year he came off the bench for Shaq. And that’s really all that I factored in when I thought about Shaq. And yet, I still had him at 17, which I thought was pretty high. You had him at 16, which is right there. Yeah. Uh, I think that’s fair. I think honestly you and I both had him where he deserves to be ranked. Those years from 95 to 2000 were great. So you’re looking at the second half and the playoff run of the 990 o you know 2000 season. Great run. He was magnificent at that point in time. So you’re looking at four, five months of really good basketball. But then he goes to the Sydney Olympics. He comes back and he’s diagnosed with this disease and It sabotages the whole season. It’s like you acquire Eddie Jones that summer. We just talked about him. Brian Grant, Anthony Mason, like you’re you’ve retoled this roster that had fallen short to the New York Knicks and then Zoe’s not available for it. And and I can’t help but separate it also like I I still remember that 20201 season the team made the playoffs without Alonzo and they were basically built on the back of Anthony Mason who carried the team and had his only all-star appearance ever that year because he was so good as a focal point for that team alongside Jones and Hardway and everybody else. And when Alonzo came back, it shifted everything and Mace was really upset about it because the team had been his carrying the team with in Alonzo’s absence and then Zo came back and everything was dysfunctional. Like you could see it in a way that was it was palpable. Like there were times where they were looking for the jockey in the same spot in the court like trying to play in the low post. It’s like Mace, you got to get out of there because this is a bad version or this is a worse version of Alonzo Morning, but it’s still Alonzo Morning. and Mace was clearly upset about it. They were swept in the playoffs that year by the Hornets. Um, and a lot of that was due to the fact that Morning just wasn’t very good and yet he was still getting he was still the focal point of the team because it was Alonzo freaking Morning and they just they were doing things he wasn’t able to do what he had been doing before that. So the next season he plays but he’s clearly limited. Like there were times there where he was he looked tired. He just wasn’t as impactful. Uh and then he misses the following season alto together. I went through his departure. Now, the playoffs in ‘ 06 are such a defining moment for him, and I think that’s what fans tend to remember the best about the second half of his career. Was he was really solid as a backup. He had the kidney transplant. This is shaved head Alonzo my completely different version of the player he had once been in Miami, but coming off the bench to back up a Shaquille O’Neal and then playing well in spurts and he wasn’t asked to do much. You had the the incredible MVP production of Shaquille O’Neal and then Alonzo the best backup center in the game at that point in time. They had the best one two punch in the center position in ‘ 05 06 and uh Zo was so crucial and yet and yet it’s funny how we’ve all had this collective heat related Mandela effect where we remember Alonzo somehow as being more impactful than Shaquille O’Neal in the ‘ 06 finals. And as you’ve mentioned before, we we watched those NBA Files not that long ago, a couple years ago, and we looked at 06, and that’s not the case. No, it’s not. Shaq was solid. He just wasn’t dominant, and he made Eric Dampier at 7 feet and 280 pounds look stupid and tiny out there in comparison, but Alonzo just provided such a boost in the minutes that he did play that they felt it felt huge and they felt rewarding, right? It felt v like there was like a vindication of wow this is for us it’s for Zo it’s for Miami it’s for the franchise. It’s going to be how we remember like like people thought oh Kayla Martin he kind of was the Eastern Conference Finals MVP that year. It’s like no go back and watch that series. Look at look at the stats. Jimmy Butler completely outplayed Caleb Martin. It was ridiculous that shot 60% from three. What are you talking but the impact is so outsized based on the expectations. Now, the championship is important because we had this again, we we c we we ran into this issue with Tim Hardaway. Alonzo Morning is no question on Miami’s Mount Rushmore. If we were doing a Mount Rushmore thing, Morning is on it. Um or at least part of it, right? Like he’s like or whatever. We could just He’s one of the best. He’s one of the mo most important 10 players in franchise history and he ain’t 10. Sure. You know what I mean? Like it’s he’s high up on this list. That’s not the exercise here. We are judging the last 25 years of Heat history because we made up a thing to do in September and that’s what we’re doing. And unfortunately, like Hardaway, Zo gets a lot of his best years kind of lpped off because of the math here. That said, he comes the thing that he did that Hardway did not is he came back and he won a championship and he did play a real role in that championship team like you were talking about and that matters and that’s why he’s ranked higher than Hardaway. Let’s get into some trivia really quick, David. Um, you know what? Actually, let’s take a quick break. We’ll do trivia on the other side of the break and then our big sliding doors moment for Lonzo my All right, trivia. I’ve got three questions for you. Number one, during the Heat’s 2006 NBA Finals victory over the Dallas Mavericks, Alonzo Morning came off the bench in a decisive game six. How many blocks did he record in that game? Five. Five is right. That’s right. The famous five block game. We just did the rewatch on that. Um All right. So, that’s a point for you. Excellent. Second one. Four players won back-to-back defensive player of the year awards in the ‘9s. Name them. One of them is obviously Alonzo Morning as we know. So, there’s three other players that I I need three other names for a point. Hakee Elijahan. Mhm. Michael Jordan. No. Jordan didn’t win back-to-back defensive player of the year awards. No. Interesting. Okay. So, cameo. Wow. Oh, to Kim Matumbbo. Yep. Oh. Oh. Uh, I don’t think Gary Payne was it. Um, wow. Early 90s. early 90s. Alvin Robertson. No, I don’t think so. Okay. I don’t I don’t have it. Dennis Rodman. Yeah. Really? 90 and 91 or 91 92. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. You know, again, it’s so interesting how you remember a certain player in a certain way and kind of overlook how impactful he was. Like obviously I consciously know that Dennis Rodman was a hell of a defensive player, but it’s so hard to separate the role that he played in Chicago Bulls. He was already such a larger than life personality that uh I kind of forget when he was just doing the the work in Detroit and that was really what made him the great player he was. So yeah, that was Pistons Rodman to your point. I just to make that clear for the listeners. Yeah, I mean it’s I very surprising and it basically I mean that’s the 90s, right? You have four guys who won back-to-back defensive player of the year awards. You’ve had you have um David Robertson in the middle of that. Yeah. And that’s really it. Like those are the defensive player of the year winners. It’s Zo, it’s McTumbo, it’s Elijah, it’s Rodman and and it’s Robertson. And that’s it. Like Yeah. It was it was just those guys dominating the defensive player of the years in the 90s. Uh last last uh last trivia question. Anza morning’s career was interrupted by a rare kidney disease, but he made a remarkable return after an undergoing a transplant who donated the kidney that allowed him to continue his NBA career. That was his cousin, but I don’t remember his name. I’m not going to ask you the name. It was his cousin. The name was Jason Cooper, but uh it was his cousin. All right, so you get two two points on trivia there. I haven’t done a total. We should uh as we get into the top 10 in our next one or close to our top 10, we’ll uh we’ll do an updating on the trivia. uh recurring segments. This one is our sliding doors moment. This is a what if moment that could have changed the way this player is remembered for better or for worse. Could change the trajectory of his career and this one is the kidney disease. It feels like we’ve talked about Zo’s kidney disease as a sliding doors moment for a lot of players who played with Alonzo Morning or who played just after Alonzo Morning. This was huge. And I just we keep finding new ways to talk about how big of a deal this was for people who don’t remember. He was coming off of Alonzo Morning back-to-back MVP ballot seasons. He was second and third. This was at the peak, as good as he was, he was at the peak of his powers and at 30 years old. Yeah. It’s like if Giannis missed a whole season. I literally have that right. I have that written down. This is as if Giannis just retired and was and came back and was never the same. If Yan if Giannis retired and came back with Thanasses, that’s what this would be like. Wow. The lesser at the Kmpo. Uh yeah. No, it really is like you can’t deny like there are other points there like his decision to leave. I talked about it before, but it’s funny because again there were so many fans that were either younger or maybe just have overlooked that part of his history that it’s not it doesn’t feel like it has the same kind of gravitas. You could look to his run in 2006 again, the way that it’s changed and we’ve all have this collective memory of Alonzo being this incredible uh player and impactful player at the NBA finals when he was really just a really good role player. You can’t take that away from him because he was, but it was also Alonzo Morning thriving in that role. But nothing nothing changes the trajectory of how he’s remembered and this franchise quite like the the his kidney disease because who knows they were they were and we’ve talked about it before they were a title contending team they had retoled they said you know what Jamal match you don’t want to take that shot you want to pass it up to Clarence Weatherspoon have fun in Charlotte we’re getting Eddie Jones’s so and we talked about how that team had Zo not retired like could they have beaten the Sixers in that run to face the Lakers in the finals that first here and you and I think that yeah, pretty good chance. I went back even more, David, and I I looked at multiple seasons here. So, you’ve got the Nets, you mentioned them before, back-to-back Eastern Conference, he could have beaten the Nets if Alonzo Morning never had a kidney disease and was at 30 years old, 31 years old, 32 years old. if he was still at that level, which I have no reason to think he wouldn’t be without a kidney disease. Like, why couldn’t the Heat have finally broken through and have been instead of the 76ers that year, the representative, and instead of the Nets and back-to-back years, the representative at less, it probably wouldn’t have been all three years. One of those years, two of those years. Absolutely. Now, here’s the funny part. Here’s where we really get into the sliding doors part of this. Okay. So, they probably would have needed to trade for another point guard at some point, right? Tim Hardway was still on the downward slope, right? Like that’s Yeah, I’m not going to do a what if moment on him on his injuries. Like that’s different than just like this rare kidney disease. So, they at some point they would have had the trade they did trade for Eddie Jones in 2000. They played one year together. Hardway did not have much longer. He was traded in 2001. If Zo doesn’t have is if Zo if the kidney disease doesn’t take him out, I still think they have to trade Hardaway or do something at that position, right? I don’t think they would have just kept on Hardway in that in that state at that point of his career. So, they trade him they trade hardway in 2001. They end up with 35-year-old Rod Strickland. Okay. Just a stop gap player if there’s ever been one. Yeah. But also appropriate. Zo was gone. They didn’t really know what the team was. They were just like, “Hey, we just need somebody to bring the ball up and we’ll just we’re going to kind of figure it out this year.” So, they got Strickland. Had Zo still been in his prime and available, would they have been more aggressive in that summer of 2001? And here are the list of guys who got traded that summer who moved teams. Jason Kidd, yeah, traded from Phoenix to New Jersey. Stefan Marberry, New Jersey to Phoenix. Mike Bby from Vancouver to Sacramento, right? Would have Miami tried to get involved in any of those three guys? For sure they would have. Pat, I don’t know if they would have gotten them, but Pat Riley makes calls on all three of them. 100%. Mike B was awesome for that Kings team. Jason Kidd went on to lead those Nets teams to back-to-back championship finals appearances. Stfan Marberry was he’s kind of a weird punch line now. He was great. He was Starberry. Starberry, man. I wanted the Starburries. Um and and and look uh they acquire uh um in Sacramento, but they moved Jason Williams to Memphis. Like, could Miami have gone in on Jason Williams earlier in his career rather than acquiring him in 2005? So, there’s a lot of possibilities there. Which one of those guys would you have been most excited to see play with uh with with Zo? Uh not Kid. Uh, you know, he he had some trouble in Phoenix before that that a lot of people have conveniently forgotten. Um, gee, I Marbury would have been like the natural era parent to Tim Hardaway, right? Flashy scoring guard. That would have been interesting. I wasn’t a fan of his game, but yeah, but he would have been a better fit, I think. And another sliding doors moment, we would think about Marbury’s career potentially a little bit differently if he ended up making a finals or two playing for Pat Riley and yeah, helping drive the team to the finals. That would have been a hell of a opportunity there. He might be in the Hall of Fame, you know. Wow. That’s crazy. Yeah. A lot of like that. We’ve already talked about if Zo doesn’t like there’s no DW, there’s probably no Shaq like all the stuff like the the butterfly effect is is wide and vast. But this to me was to think about what point guards Miami would have gotten to pair with Alonzo Morning at the like the final part of his prime was really interesting to me. And you could just a million rabbit holes can can sprout from this. Um, is Alonzo Morning jersey worthy? Yeah, obviously. Yeah. My iconic jersey retired. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, absolutely. Uh, is it the best jersey? DWade to me is still the best Heat jersey. It’s the most jersey worthy of the Heat jersey. You could argue Zo is second. You know, it’s funny because even when you’re saying that and I think it just closed my mind and the first thought that pops in my mind when I think of heat jersey, it is Zo in the red jersey. That’s it. With the old with the old uh number marks. Yeah. Fist clenched, you know, pumped up still. He had that little that little hair there, the low cut fade. I mean, that was it. That’s that’s the iconic jersey for me is Zo in a red jersey. It’s a great call. Uh the Jones Badier test. Yeah. I mean the Heat needed backups that aren’t a bad guy. Would he be a backup to Khil wear? Like we like the young guys. Oh, you know what? That’s a great point. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Heat Prime was before the 25 year mark. Or are we getting like backing up Shaq? Even the one that backed up Shaq might play over Keller at this point. Possibly. Although you know what we just talked about this with Whit side. Like Morning could hit the three. like he probably a better shooting stroke but not asked to do so that much but he had that 15-footer along the baseline down Pat. So would he still provide enough spacing? Could you play him Bam in the same lineup? I don’t know. Sure. Why not? I’ll take a chance. You get when you get if you get prime defensive Alonzo Morning with prime defensive Bam Adabio that’s at the point where you’re like I don’t even care about the fit or the shooting anymore. Just play those guys together. We’ll figure the rest of it out. I I’ll take March 2000 Alonzo Morning. How about that? Like that’s right before the kidney. Right before the kidney still very much in his prime. So yeah. Yeah. This one the Jones Badier test. We’re at the point now in our 25 rankings that like everybody’s going to pass it. But it is sort of fun to envision like what the fit would be. Um versus pin this player against the player who came before him. Ask if we got it right. This one is debatable. So um Eddie Jones came before Alonzo Morning here. Eddie Jones had a much longer career within the last 25 years than Alonzo Morning. I technically had Eddie Jones higher in my ranking that I submitted. I think you did too. I did Alonzo Morning. Yeah. I don’t really care that much. I love that Zo is this high on the list and that we get to talk about him. But I guess if I had to say I I would have to say no, but to me it’s debatable enough that I don’t care. Yeah, that’s fair. I I’ll take that same approach. But uh I mean that’s I don’t want to overlook how good Eddie was on bad teams and that’s kind of how it’s tied together. Again showing you that the fact that Morning came back won a championship in ‘ 06 really has given us all collective rosecolored glasses about his stent here. Could we call the Eddie Jones Badier test the Eddie Jones badier morning test because Zo came back Zo came back and what and was good and played a role. I think we have to do that. All right. So, the Jones BadZo test now. I like it. The JBZ test. The old JBZ. Uh, let us know uh what you guys think in the YouTube comments. Did we have Alonzo Morning Rank too high based on the fact that, you know, his career kind of gets truncated here within our parameters? Did we have them too low? And you guys don’t even care about the rules at all. Um, what do you remember? I would actually love to hear this. Leave a comment if you’re old enough to remember Alonzo Morning. Give us your favorite Alonzo Morning moments. Like this. This is the stuff that really matters and this is the reward to doing an exercise like this is we get to hear from a wide range of Miami Heat fans and people who were dieards for those Alonzo Morning Tim Hardaway teams that kept running into the Knicks and the Bulls in those late 90s playoff games. Let us know what your Alonzo Morning moments were. Let us know what you think what what he meant to you as a Young Heat fan. And um yeah, whether or not you would one of Stefan Marvy or Jason Kidd to pair with him if he never had the kidney disease. Uh that’ll do it for us today. Thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day.

HEAT LEGEND ALONZO MOURNING: FROM SETBACKS TO CHAMPIONSHIP GLORY

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil explore Alonzo Mourning’s transformative impact on the MIAMI HEAT. They analyze his defensive dominance, All-Star selections, and leadership during multiple division titles. The hosts discuss Mourning’s battle with kidney disease, its effect on his career, and his triumphant return to help secure the 2006 NBA championship.

They debate Mourning’s loyalty, legacy, and place among the greatest centers in NBA history. The conversation also delves into “sliding doors” moments, imagining how Mourning’s career and the HEAT’s trajectory might have differed without his health setbacks.

0:00 – Intro
1:20 – Alonzo Mourning’s legacy
13:15 – Ranking debate: Why he’s #11 on the list
22:15 – Sliding doors moment: What if Zo never got kidney disease?
27:30 – Could Miami have paired Zo with Jason Kidd, Marbury, or Bibby?

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