IN MY OPINION
Everybody wins in this scenario
BY DAN LE BATARD
dlebatard@herald.com
So now it looks like
Alonzo Mourning is returning to the franchise he never should have left.
This is good for the franchise and for the player.
In other words, Good Mourning, Miami.
This is a no-lose proposition. As in, Miami won't be doing no losing. Mourning wins.
Pat Riley wins.
Stan Van Gundy wins. Shaq wins. And everyone else in the Eastern Conference keeps losing.
Miami needs more size and strength. Mourning provides those cartoon muscles, and cheap. He is what you need to help Shaq with those big Wallaces in Detroit once the defending champions feel like playing again. He's what you put up against the
Tim Duncans and
Kevin Garnetts and
Jermaine O'Neals and
Amare Stoudemires that Miami's
Udonis Haslem, for all his want, is too undersized to handle for any duration, if at all.
No lose: If Mourning is short-circuited again by his myriad ailments, Miami is 2nd behind Cleveland in the conference, as it is today without him. But if Mourning stays healthy, Miami has improved itself markedly by acquiring the best available power forward outside of
Karl Malone.
And here's why this is so exciting, aside from the obvious rebounding, defense and shot-blocking Mourning brings:
He doesn't cost Miami much of anything, unlike so many of the other trades available.
SMART TINKERING
You don't want to mess too much with a team that is so much better than everyone else in the conference. Miami is a flabbergasting 12-4 in the East, 3-2 in the division. And a 9-2 record on the road. So the standings indicate Miami ought to coast to The Finals unless Shaq or
Dwyane Wade gets hurt.
And this is the perfect kind of tinkering, getting something for nothing, Toronto willing to pay the disgruntled Mourning to just please go away.
Tempting as it might be to send
Eddie Jones to dismantling Toronto in a package for
Jalen Rose and
Donyell Marshall, you don't want to upset the balance of the conference's best team by trading a scorer and the team's best defender (Jones) midway through the season, especially not when Jones finally appears to be finding his footing and touch and role after almost half the season.
CHECK THE EGO
Mourning improves you without changing you. And he makes you look more formidable against the superpowers out West.
Shaq getting into foul trouble isn't quite as scary if a healthy Mourning is the guy coming in off the bench.
Mourning's ego? That's no small thing.
But it ought to fit if he's to be believed about wanting to win a championship above all else. He has said that a lot through the years, even while always grabbing at more money, but he's going to have to get used to being more irrelevant on this team than he has ever been on one.
He's used to being the star, the last piece, the center in both position and statue. But here he's just another part, a replacement, a dirty-work guy who won't get any plays called for him and is going to have to get his points by doing the kind of janitorial work Haslem does.
CLEAN-UP HELP
It will be awkward, seeing someone who is used to being the king relegated to cleaning up around someone else's palace.
But it is what Riley needs, and Riley already gave Mourning $100 million once without getting a championship return on his investment, or anything close. Mourning is being brought here to clean up around Shaq, not get in his way.
Mourning refused to show up in Toronto after being traded from New Jersey, and refused to take a buyout with the Nets, so it is both a winding and whining journey that has brought him back to Miami's doorstop.
Pretty good trade, that one.
Trading a winding and whining path for a winning one.
(I will get to the offseason this time) 
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