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“Lebron James tries posterizing Alonzo Mourning then Dwyane Wade tries it on Bron”: When the young Heat and Cavaliers stars tried taking revenge for their teammates and failed

Akash Murty
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“Lebron James tries posterizing Alonzo Mourning then Dwyane Wade tries it on Bron”: When the young Heat and Cavaliers stars tried taking revenge for their teammates and failed

Alonzo Mourning was Miami’s very own version of Karl Malone and Shaquille O’Neal. Heat’s #33 never backed down against anyone.

Although the 6’10 big man just played the centre position throughout his 16-year NBA career, he was a pure mixture of an athletic forward with the frame of a big man.

The 7-time all-star was the driving force behind 7 of Orlando Magic and Heat’s playoffs years in the 90s. And even though those teams didn’t make much noise in the Playoffs apart from a season or two, Mourning was the man who, under Pat Riley‘s guidance, established the most successful teams out of the ones created under the NBA’s 1988 expansion.

Alonzo led Miami to a 61-21 season in 1997, which was their best in the history for 16 more years. The team that had the worst start by any franchise in the 1988-89 season became a consistent Playoffs team as soon as they got their big man in 1995.

He was the most formidable rival for the Big Diesel to get past in the East. There are plenty of clips of Shaq talking about his rivalry with Mourning comparing it to Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. The 2x DPOY might have played a small part in his franchise winning its first-ever Championship in 2006, but he was still the strongest pillar of that team.

Also read: “Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers are the last professional sports team to 3-peat”: ESPN notices something remarkable as Tampa Bay Lightning lost the Stanley Cup

An older Alonzo Mourning wasn’t going down against LeBron James and Anderson Varejao, and neither was the dynamic D-Wade

The Heat didn’t win a conference title until 2006, the very year they won the Championship as well. It was arguably the best season of the franchise’s history, not just because of the fact that it was their first title but because it happened against every odd.

Led by Dwyane Wade and a little older and slower O’Neal and an even older Mourning, who was just playing a small role in the team, they won against some of the toughest teams of that decade when nobody believed in them.

Their road to the championship was filled with some of the best moments of their franchise history. One of those was a match against the LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in March of ‘06. The game was as physical as it gets, with Cavs’ Anderson Varejao going full force against Mourning on every other possession.

When the then 36-year-old had enough of the 24-year-old Brazilian, he made him test the floor’s strength while wildly swinging those huge elbows.

LeBron watching his teammate going through that beating, tried taking instant revenge on Mourning in the next possession and attempted his monstrous signature dunk on the old man. He missed out on what could have been another highlight poster of his career by a centimetre and saw Wade trying to do it on him on the other end and fail as well.

Also read: “Kobe Bryant should go to college, he’s not ready!”: Golden State Warriors passed on the 5-time champion to pick Todd Fuller because of an incompetent GM

That 98-92 win and the following post-season are some of the most incredible memories for the core Heat Nation despite many more successful seasons, highlights, and posters that involved LeBron-Wade in the Miami uniform.

About the author

Akash Murty

Akash Murty

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An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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