Shaq and Zo: From battlers to brothers

‘The two alpha males’ of the 1992 draft class have become close.

MIAMI — Alonzo Mourning and Shaquille O’Neal knew each other only as adversaries in 2005 when the two were brought together in Miami after 12 seasons of battles that Mourning described as “absolute war because we were both marking our territory.”

And then it happened. Shaq, having initiated the conversation with the Heat to bring back Mourning, found out early what Zo was all about.

“We were in practice,” Mourning said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. “I only knew one speed and we were going through drills and I was going hard. He taps me on the shoulder. He said, ‘Listen, slow down. I don’t have it today. If you go hard, I got to go hard.’

“And I looked at him and I said, ‘Man, (expletive) you.’ I said, ‘If your ass gets in foul trouble, I got to come in. I got to be ready.’ He got pissed at me.”

That was the start of two foes,

two people with opposite personalities off the court and powerful games on the court, better understanding each other and becoming such good friends that a decade later one would be on the stage helping present the other as he entered the Hall of Fame.

“I think he learned to respect me more as a teammate, not just as an adversary, because I used to push him in practice every day,” said Mourning, now a Heat vice president.

Alpha males at top of draft

Next week marks the 25th anniversary of the 1992 draft in which Shaq and Mourning were the top two picks, or as Mourning put it “the two alpha males” of the class. Shaq left LSU after three years and Mourning fulfilled his foster mother Fannie Threet’s desire for him to stay four years at Georgetown.

Maybe one day a comparison will be made between 1992 and Thursday’s draft, in which the Heat have the 14th pick. And although the top two picks are expected to be point guards and not centers, Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball could develop a rivalry similar to that of Shaq and Mourning.

The gap between Shaq and Mourning was pretty wide. Shaq was a mountain of a man, growing into a 7-foot-1, 325-pound specimen rarely seen in the NBA. And he dwarfed Mourning, who at 6-10 and eventually 240 pounds, was one of the stronger players in the league.

There never was any doubt who Orlando would take with the No. 1 pick, leaving Mourning for Charlotte.

“He was 7-1, huge and agile,” Mourning said. “You’ve got to make that investment, especially during that day and time where the big men were the focal point of the league. He could catch, he could finish … he was dominant. And he showed it immediately as soon as he came into the league.”

Being in the same conference at the start of their careers, they would face each other up to four times every year. The battles raged, and soon they were establishing themselves as two of the top players at their position, with Shaq making the comparison to the legendary Wilt Chamberlain-Bill Russell rivalry, with himself in the role of Wilt and Mourning as Russell.

Although there were other dominant centers (Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing), Shaq and Mourning started pulling in the hardware. Both were named to the All-Rookie team in 1993, they were All-Stars multiple times (Shaq 15, Mourning seven), first-team All-League (Shaq eight, Mourning one). Shaq was named MVP in 2000 and Mourning was the defensive player of the year