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Scalabrine recalls teammates Alonzo Mourning, Kenyon Martin fighting

REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine

The 2003-04 New Jersey Nets were known for two things: Firing coach Byron Scott and replacing him with Lawrence Frank midseason, and a fight during a team scrimmage between power forward Kenyon Martin and veteran center Alonzo Mourning.

The latter was explained on The Vertical Podcast by Yahoo Sports' Brian Scalabrine - a member of that team:

We scrimmaged again and there was something on the line. During that time, 'Zo and Kenyon are getting chippy with each other, like, "You guys don't bring it, that's why we're no good," and 'Zo is (at the time) not playing in games, sitting out with various injuries, so there was a breaking point and nobody in the world would say anything to Zo, except for Kenyon Martin. Obviously 'Zo has an ailment, the sickness with his kidney, and he's on Kenyon Martin for sitting out "with my knee" or "with my hip' or whatever Martin sat out for. And the line was crossed. Kenyon Martin goes to 'Zo ... "My kidney! My kidney! I can't play today, my kidney." And all hell broke loose at that point. And it was funny because as 'Zo is going after Kenyon, and people were trying to hold him back, I saw absolutely zero fear in Kenyon's eyes ... and then he started talking about "I saw the fight (between) New York and Miami, what you going to do to me?"

Mourning, then 33, had missed the entire previous NBA season due to the serious kidney condition, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. The eventual Hall of Famer never did gel with the Nets, and was traded the following season - as was Martin (Mourning and four others were dealt to the Toronto Raptors for Vince Carter, with Mourning refusing to report to the Raps).

Martin later apologized for the kidney insult.

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