Fans crowd Chesapeake store for Mourning's autograph

CHESAPEAKE

Fans of Alonzo Mourning snaked through the self-help and diet section of Greenbrier’s Barnes and Noble Bookstore Thursday night, waiting for the NBA basketball star to arrive and sign his just-released book: "Resilience."

Nikki Lipscomb, 42, drove from Chester with her mother, Mary Abbyss, 72, to buy the book and get a chance for an autograph and a moment with the Chesapeake-grown Mourning. She had been waiting in line for more than two hours for the 7 p.m. book-signing.

“He’s from the neighborhood,” Lipscomb said. “I’m so proud of him. I’m four years older, but I remember seeing him get on the bus and wondering, ‘Who is that tall boy?’ I’ve been following his career ever since. He’s done nothing to make me embarrassed and he’s never forgotten where he came from.”

Abbyss teased Mourning when it was her turn. He once showed up at her home and she asked who he was. “He looked at me like, 'You don’t know who I am?' ”

Right behind Lipscomb and Abbyss was Mourning’s 10th-grade English teacher, Norma Halterman, now a Virginia Beach resident.

“He did well in school. Even though he was on the road a lot with his team, he always turned in his homework.”

Her most vivid memory of Mourning was seeing the 6-foot-10 teenager peer in at her from hall windows that were 6 feet high.

“His basketball skills are fine, but it’s what he’s done off the court that’s precious,” she said.

When 13-year-old Austin Colbert stood next to Mourning for a picture, the 6-foot-8 youngster was able to look the basketball player in the eye.

“How are your grades?” Mourning asked Austin, an eighth-grader at Norfolk Collegiate School who said he was working on improving his B's to A's.

“He just makes me feel good,” said Austin, who lives in Hickory. “I feel so much joy in me right now. Just knowing I am growing up in the same area as he did makes me feel I can accomplish what he did if I work hard enough.”

Those who turned out Thursday night made an impression on Mourning. “This means a lot to me, and these people inspire me to continue to go out and do more and work harder,” he said.

The toughest part about writing the book was the fear of leaving something out, he said.

The 231-page book, released by Random House’s Ballantine Books, recounts how the basketball star overcame the kidney disease that forced him to retire from the NBA. He later underwent a kidney transplant. Although told he would never play basketball at a competitive level again, Mourning proved the naysayers wrong when he later returned to the Miami Heat. That comeback was derailed after a bad fall at Atlanta on Dec. 19, 2007, that damaged his knee. He continues to work on his recovery, still hoping to return.

“I should be at training camp, but I’m here with you instead,” he said to the crowd waiting to get their books signed.

Mourning has credited Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who overcame testicular cancer, as his inspiration for the book. Some of the proceeds from “Resilience” will go for kidney transplantation and research programs.

Most of all, he wanted others to read about those who influenced him the most in his young life, such as his basketball coach, Indian River High School's Bill Lassiter, who sat next to him during the book-signing.

“This is a service to those people who did so much for me,” Mourning said. “I wanted to put those moments on paper for everyone to experience.”

Devon Sorlie, (757) 222-5202, devon.sorlie@pilotonline.com