My Favorite Cigar
Alonzo Mourning • Miami Heat Vice President
New World By A.J. Fernandez
For years, Alonzo Mourning was a muscular scoring machine, guarding the paint with tenacity. Nowadays, he is a vice president for the Miami Heat, along with a host of business ventures that keep him busy. The seven-time All-Star and 2006 NBA champion made his bones in the era of basketball known for its sheer physicality, notably warring with the New York Knicks. “The games against the Knicks I put an X on the schedule,” he said. “I knew it was going to be all-out war.”
Mourning loves cigars, but he hesitates to name a favorite. “I have a handful I really love,” he says, listing A.J. Fernandez New World, Arturo Fuente Chateau Series (“a great breakfast cigar”), Montecristo White and Hoyo de Monterrey Cubans. For his birthday a few years ago, he was given a box of Fuente Fuente OpusX 20th Anniversaries. “Probably the best cigar I’ve had,” he says. While he started smoking cigars during his playing days, he never puffed on game days. Even today, he takes days off, averaging maybe five a week. “I smoke more when I’m on the golf course, or I might stop at the cigar bar.” For pairings, he opts for Basil Hayden Toast Bourbon or Zacapa XO rum.
