Alonzo Mourning: How I Averaged a Triple-Double in HS
Words. Andrew Katz
Alonzo Mourning is arguably the most dominant high school basketball player to be ranked No. 1. His accomplishments in high school are simply ridiculous – averaging a triple-double (points, boards, blocks), rattling off a 51-game win streak, and being a monster at every playground in Chesapeake, Va. We got up with ‘Zo about his run through Virginia in high school before sizing up the competition at the 1988 McDonald’s Game.
HSH: You had some amazing accomplishments during your high school career. Can you share some memories from the senior year in which you averaged a triple-double?
Alonzo Mourning: The game came very easy to me at that level at that particular time. Running, jumping, blocking shots, rebounding the basketball, playing way above the rim – I had an extreme enjoyment of the game. I played it every day. I had a group of guys where we had a connection because we grew up together and played from junior high school on up. Once we reached the high school level we knew each other like the back of our hands. Our starting five was a team – we played together all the time, taking our bikes to different playgrounds in our local community. We always played at a high level. That was it.
HSH: So when you went out on the playground, did you dominate just as much?
AM: When we played good high school competition, it was like – pssh. That’s why we won 51 games in a row. It was a pretty great accomplishment for us. We always played against grown men. We used to find the grown men that was out there playing pickup ball, and we’d just have fun. A lot of places that we played, we had runs at different courts. There was teams that were waiting to play. We made sure that we didn’t lose because we didn’t want to wait in that line to get back on the court.
HSH: Was there one particular place where you guys did damage on the playground?
AM: There was a place called Woodstock. It was a great park to go to. There was another place called Kempsville Rec Center, outside courts that was pretty popular.
HSH: As the culmination of that great run, you played in the McDonald’s Game. How was that?
AM: That was a pretty great experience. We had a pretty prominent class of individuals that came out that year – probably one of the best classes in the history of the McDonald’s All-American game. Myself, Billy Owens, Stanley Roberts, Chris Jackson, Christian Laettner, Shawn Kemp – the list goes on. Chris Mills, LaPhonso Ellis, we had between 10 and 15 guys that played in the NBA at a high level. The majority of them were All-Stars.
HSH: Were you really impressed by any of your contemporaries in that game?
AM: Billy Owens and Shawn Kemp – we were 1, 2, and 3. It was just the three of us for the most part. USA Today comes out with the top players every year. I was the one. I admired everybody else’s game. They were the measure of my competition. I looked at them and said, ‘OK that’s my challenge.’ I had to play well against Billy Owens and Shawn Kemp. I had to play well against all those guys to determine my status. That got you up and ready.
