SI Films: Patrick & Zo

As professional players, Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning fought as opponents of one of the most intense rivalry in NBA history. Ewing’s Knicks and Zo’s Heat met four consecutive times in the playoffs, between 1997 and 2000. Miami won the 1997 series while New York took the other three.

As college players however, the relationship between the two was more of a Mentor-Diciple one. A young Alonzo, aged around 12, was inspired so much by the 1982 Hoya’s run at the NCAA’s final against Michael Jordan’s North Carolina that the next day he bought a Georgetown jersey. (source) Years later, he got to play college basketball for Hoya’s and asked to wear number 33.

The SI documentary tells the story of a friendship that survived the Knicks-Heat rivalry, between two players that helped each other on and off the court, to the point that one offered his kidney to the other when his life and career was threatened.