"There are some narrow-minded basketball people who still think P.J. Brown is overpaid, and to be frank, I'm getting sick of hearing that bull," says Mourning. "He's like a guy in a war buried in the trenches. You see him fighting the way he does and you just want to go fight with him. You can't help it. His intensity is contagious."

Brown's success stems from his strict adherence to the game's fundamentals. His first love was football, and he didn't take up hoops until he grew to 6'7" in the 11th grade at Winnifield (La.) High. While Brown crammed to catch up on plays and develop coordination on the court, he made his first major step toward a basketball career, realizing he could be a major factor by playing hard all the time, even if he didn't score.

That attitude paid off in a scholarship to Louisiana Tech, where he earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors in his senior year. Brown was taken in the second round of the 1992 draft by the Nets, but he rejected their league-minimum offer of $140,000 for one year and played his first professional season in Greece.

That was another major step in his development. "Everything in Europe is fundamentals, like the stuff you see in basketball camps in the States," says Brown, who averaged 17.0 points, 13.7 boards and 3.2 blocks for Athens-based Panionios. "It helped me a lot playing there. If we had more of that kind of philosophy here, you'd see more Michael Jordans and Larry Birds in the NBA. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in life."

After returning from Greece in 1993, Brown signed for $2.4 million with New Jersey, where he was miscast as a small forward and left to endure 141 losses over three seasons. During that stretch he married Dee, in one of the best basketball decisions he has made. A 6'3" former forward on a powerhouse Louisiana Tech basketball team, she is not only a wife and mother but also a coach and frequent practice partner.

"I was an athlete myself, so I understand what it's like," says Dee. "But I still tell him when somebody busts his butt or totally outplays him."

That rarely has happened this season to Brown, who, along with his Heat teammates, got tougher as the season wore on—a necessity given that Miami lost Mourning for three weeks because of a foot injury. "People always wanted to know how we could still be leading the division," Brown says. "You have to come to our training camp or to our practices to understand. We practice harder than a lot of teams play in games. That's why people—professional basketball players—sometimes just flat-out quit against us. And when it happens, it's an unbelievable sight."

As was the scene during a recent appearance by Brown at a suburban Miami library as part of the NBA's Reading Month project. Brown read Goldilocks and the Three Bears aloud while teetering in a chair not built for an NBA forward, using different voices and hand gestures for each character as he read from the book. His choice of material was oddly appropriate; in a way it mimicked how things worked out for him this season.

At first his $36 million contract seemed too big. Then it looked too small. And now, with the-Heat steeled for a playoff run at the Bulls, Brown's deal appears to be just right.