Zo Returns - it's official

Today around midday, the Heat officially added Alonzo Mourning to their roster. In order to do so, they released Wesley Person, whom the Heat had been in negotiations about a buy out of his contract. Person is owed $1.8M through the end of next season and since he was waived today on March 1st, he is eligible to be on another team's roster for the playoffs.

As for Mourning, this is the culmination of a season of speculation. The rumors started at the beginning of the season when a disgruntled Mourning mused about getting a buyout to join a team that was in a better spot to contend. The deals the Nets made in the offseason seemed to damper his ideas about the Nets chances. The game early on in the regular season that saw Zo matchup with Shaq created further speculation and compelled people to speculate. Eventually, Zo was traded to the Raptors, along with other players, for Vince Carter - but Mourning never reported. Eventually, the Raptors bought out Zo's contract and freed him up to join the Heat about two weeks ago.

So, the odyssey is over and Zo has returned home to Miami. Now, the speculation and criticism will become heightened as the Heat make their march to the playoffs. It remains to be seen how Mourning will mesh with this Heat team which is currently playing some very good basketball without Shaq. This definetly adds a lot of depth to this already deep Heat team.