The Mourning After

So the Miami Heat won their first NBA Finals, and I'll leave it to the local sports columnists to sulk or gloat, depending on their dispositions, on the fact that two Laker legends were instrumental in bringing victory to the other coast: Pat Riley and Shaquille O'Neal, whose departure from LA was rancorous, to say the least. Shaq's leaving for more humid pastures certainly still inspires some enmity in Lakers fans to this day, probably even a smidgen more right now, but clearly, if the Lakers were going to build around a player like Kobe Bryant, you can hardly blame Shaq for seeking out an environment more interested in team play. Kobe's name wasn't mentioned in a post-game interview with Shaq and Dwyane Wade, but he was the entire subtext of the conversation as the two men discussed their mutual respect for one another and as Shaq praised Wade's humility.

For me, however, the highlight was Alonzo Mourning's post-game press conference (carried on ESPN), an amazing, heartfelt monologue that went five, six, seven minutes, maybe more, after just one question. Mourning began with an account of his 2000 trials when he required a potentially career-ending kidney transplant and ended with a shout-out to Lance Armstrong and some words of inspiration for anyone at a dark point in his or her life. The gratitude he felt for having come back to help a team win a championship was palpable, even profound, and he spun an affecting narrative that rambled only a little but was filled with emotion and hope and was nearly as impressive as his team's accomplishment. Talk about putting things in perspective, something TV rarely bothers to do.