<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MIAMI -- Alonzo Mourning says he is donating his Miami Heat salary for the 2005 season to charities that serve the city's underprivileged youth and help poor kidney patients. Mourning, a former Heat all-star who rejoined the team in March as a backup center, will give about $300,000 to organizations that promote literacy and education for poor youths. That represents the Heat's share of his NBA veteran minimum salary of $1 million, which is shared with his former team, the New Jersey Nets. Other donations are earmarked for charities that provide food to poor kidney dialysis patients. Mourning, whose basketball career was interrupted by bouts of kidney disease, received a kidney transplant in December 2003. Mourning said Thursday that his main goal in donating his Heat salary is to publicize the work being done by a variety of organizations in South Florida. </div> Go here for the rest of the article: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-421...la-sports-front
Always a class-act. I'll be rooting for the Heat to be upset, but if they make the Finals I can't help, but cheer for Steve Smith, Zo, Keyon, and Eddie Jones to get some hardware.
Zo should've donated the remainder his Nets salary <div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Always a class-act. I'll be rooting for the Heat to be upset, but if they make the Finals I can't help, but cheer for Steve Smith, Zo, Keyon, and Eddie Jones to get some hardware.</div>No wonder you credited the Nets so much
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Always a class-act. </div> Not getting that. This is the same guy who ripped off the Nets and then demanded a trade to a contender, then refused to play for the Raptors until he got a buyout so he could sign with a contender in Miami. He may have done some good things for charity, but what high profile player hasn't? Zo thinks the league owes him a title, which it clearly doesn't. Not a class act in my book, sorry.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pwn3d!:</div><div class="quote_post"> Not getting that. This is the same guy who ripped off the Nets and then demanded a trade to a contender, then refused to play for the Raptors until he got a buyout so he could sign with a contender in Miami.</div>Jason Kidd got a huge contract from the Nets and also demanded a trade after they dismantled the team. Why doesn't anyone criticize Kidd like they do Zo? There's no difference in their situations. Both don't have that much time in their careers to stay around for a rebuilding project and asked that they be traded to a contender. Although he's been more quite about it, Kidd still wants to be traded to a title contender and will be pushing for it in the offseason. It's very hypocritical of anyone to not hold Kidd to the same criticism as Zo. I guess that's just the way people are.
Why doesn't he just donate his salary back to the Raptors? Class act my ass, this guy doesn't live up to his obligations. A man of no word is not a man at all. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Heat4Life:</div><div class="quote_post">Jason Kidd got a huge contract from the Nets and also demanded a trade after they dismantled the team. Why doesn't anyone criticize Kidd like they do Zo? There's no difference in their situations. Both don't have that much time in their careers to stay around for a rebuilding project and asked that they be traded to a contender. Although he's been more quite about it, Kidd still wants to be traded to a title contender and will be pushing for it in the offseason. It's very hypocritical of anyone to not hold Kidd to the same criticism as Zo. I guess that's just the way people are.</div>I think the difference is that JKidd demanded a trade but still to this day has played his tail off for the Nets. 'Zo just stopped playing. Simple as that. Hypocritical? I wouldn't even approach that term yet if you don't know the extent to which 'Zo screwed over the Nets and the Raptors in terms of cash.
^Exactly, kidd still plays his ass off, and if the raptors could have got mourning to play for the raptors? don't you think we would have, he just refused to play for us. IMO if kidd got traded here he would play, but would clearly state that he wants a trade, and is very unhappy here, but he would still play. 'Zo is the scum that's under kidd's shoes.
Does Kidd play his ass off or is he just raising his trade value and interest? Zo played his ass off when he was with the Nets. That's because he had a bigger purpose in mind: get out of NJ. Ofcourse that was before they over played him which caused him to be hit with so many injuries. And to the Raptors fans, your GM publicly acknowledged that he knew Zo wouldn't be reporting when he got traded and said he was only included to match salaries. You might want to steer your barbs in his direction when you talk about being screwed over. Especially after the breakout VC enjoyed when he was traded.
what a classy thing to do. good for zo-the nba can use more selfless acts like this. that's great to hear.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pwn3d!:</div><div class="quote_post"> Not getting that. This is the same guy who ripped off the Nets and then demanded a trade to a contender, then refused to play for the Raptors until he got a buyout so he could sign with a contender in Miami. He may have done some good things for charity, but what high profile player hasn't? Zo thinks the league owes him a title, which it clearly doesn't. Not a class act in my book, sorry.</div> Ripped off the Nets? How? He got frustrated in New Jersey because of Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson not taking practice or winning seriously. Then they teased Zo about his kidney problem. I don't blame him for wanting out of that situation at all and blasting them afterwards. Also if Mourning doesn't sign in New Jersey, chances are Kidd would not have been back either. Raptors GM Rob Babcock said the 35-year old Mourning didn't meet the team's medical conditions. So they bought out his contract. How is that Zo's fault?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Ripped off the Nets? How? He got frustrated in New Jersey because of Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson not taking practice or winning seriously. Then they teased Zo about his kidney problem. I don't blame him for wanting out of that situation at all and blasting them afterwards. Also if Mourning doesn't sign in New Jersey, chances are Kidd would not have been back either. Raptors GM Rob Babcock said the 35-year old Mourning didn't meet the team's medical conditions. So they bought out his contract. How is that Zo's fault?</div> Yup plus he was forced to stop playing otherwise he would have risked his life. Then he came back and the team was losing. Tell me if you are 35 year old and just came back after kidney illness, would you still want to play for a losing team? Ask yourself then blame Zo.
Zo made the Raptors pay him a crap load of cash for not turning up, the guy is not a class act at all. He didn't deserve anything back from the Raptors. I'm glad he is back playing but class act he is not. The guy just wants media attention and get people to think he is an even more of a classy guy.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Ripped off the Nets? How? He got frustrated in New Jersey because of Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson not taking practice or winning seriously. Then they teased Zo about his kidney problem. I don't blame him for wanting out of that situation at all and blasting them afterwards. Also if Mourning doesn't sign in New Jersey, chances are Kidd would not have been back either. Raptors GM Rob Babcock said the 35-year old Mourning didn't meet the team's medical conditions. So they bought out his contract. How is that Zo's fault?</div> The Nets gave him a chance when no one else was willing to take a risk on his comeback, and they signed him to a pretty hefty contract in the circumstances. Does he repay them by honouring that? No. He may have had a few differences with teammates, but he went public with his criticism of the Nets, demanded a trade from that same team when things weren't looking rosy for a title, and then refused to play when he was traded to another team that wasn't a contender. Not a class act in my book, thinks the league owes him for some reason, when he owes a lot more than is owed to him. Anyway, saying he donated his entire season's salary is a tad misleading, given it was substantially less than it should have been purely through his own selfishness.
He doesn't need his Heat salary after he robbed Babcock for 10 Mil. I hate it when players trying to bring exposure for themselves by announcing their charities and the amount they donated. You can't help but think that (Most) of them are doing so to gain publicity and good image, and they don't really care as much about those people they're helping as they may claim. I mean, couldn't he just send the charity the cheque every once in a while and not attract all this media attention. He sure could have done it quitely. That's why I think most players are thinking to themselves that the image they're going to gain and publicity is worth the money they're donating. Exceptions: Shaq, Magic Johnson, Dikembe Motumbo and Grant Hill. Who have done great things for the community in their careers and 70% of the time they didn't make it public and we didn't hear about for long time, if at all.
Zo has been doing charity work his entire career. He's not doing it for attention, Ewing, Mutombo, and Zo have been doing a lot of humanity work in Africa throughout their careers. It amazes me how people can spin that into a negative. These three have actually spent time in Africa, that's more powerful than just writing a check. If anything the media needs to talk more about these stories. The Nets gambled on Zo, and signed him to show Jason Kidd they were committed to winning. His health didn't allow him to play, the Nets knew the risk of signing him. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"There is always a risk and a reward, and we felt the reward was worth the risk," Thorn </div> The Nets made the decision to give him a guaranteed contract, it didn't work out for them, but that's on Thorn's head not Zo's. Teams trying to win championships take these risks. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, Mourning is eligible to come off the Nets' cap for injury-related reasons July 1, 2005, two years into the contract. </div> It's not that terrible. Toronto never expected Zo to play for them, again the GM made this choice, not Zo.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Zo has been doing charity work his entire career. He's not doing it for attention, Ewing, Mutombo, and Zo have been doing a lot of humanity work in Africa throughout their careers. It amazes me how people can spin that into a negative. These three have actually spent time in Africa, that's more powerful than just writing a check. If anything the media needs to talk more about these stories. The Nets gambled on Zo, and signed him to show Jason Kidd they were committed to winning. His health didn't allow him to play, the Nets knew the risk of signing him. The Nets made the decision to give him a guaranteed contract, it didn't work out for them, but that's on Thorn's head not Zo's. Teams trying to win championships take these risks. It's not that terrible. Toronto never expected Zo to play for them, again the GM made this choice, not Zo.</div> Rod Thorn also told the Raptors that there's a huge possibility that Zo won't even show up when talking VC trade. I dont think anyone ask themselves what i asked them to...
Babcock openly admitted after the trade went down that he doesn't expect 'Zo to ever dress up for the Raps, and he was just included to match salaries.
