LAWRENCE, Kan. · Some 20 minutes outside this historic college town -- past the Bourgeois Pig coffee bar and Sunflower Outdoor shop along quaint Massachusetts Street -- an old, white Cadillac pulls off the main drag and onto a narrow road.
"Go straight down this road," the driver said says while adjusting his Jayhawks cap. "You can't miss it."
He turns around on the last stretch of paved road, leaving a trail of fumes and revealing a bumper sticker that reads, "Psalm 51." Suddenly, the road turns rough. The car wobbles over gravel and dirt while climbing small, winding hills. Standing alone on top of a hill is the Morning Star Church.
"Discover God's purpose in you," the church literature reads. "... Fulfill your life's purpose ..."
Heat rookie Wayne Simien will tell you he found his purpose more than two years ago with the help of this church. Longing for happiness away from the Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas University, searching for an identity in which satisfaction isn't based on circumstance, Simien found his rapture and a purpose for living by sharing the Gospel.
"I was looking for something greater," Simien said. "I wanted something great to live for, and I found that in the one who created me, Jesus Christ."
Youth in Leavenworth
There isn't much to see in Leavenworth, Kan. There's the federal penitentiary, a military complex, a downtown trying to be revitalized and the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum. But this is where Wayne Simien was raised, and it's inside the old high school gymnasium where he slowly developed into a basketball star.
"Let me tell you about Wayne," says Leavenworth High coach Larry Hogan inside his cramped office across from the gym where Simien's jersey hangs at center court. "He was always a tremendously hard worker. Don't get me wrong, he had some athletic skills. But he worked very hard at it. We'd do shooting workouts in the summer, and he'd work so hard at one end of the gym, he'd be sweating so bad, there was so much water on the floor we couldn't wipe it quick enough so we'd have to go to the other end of the gym.
"He delivered Leavenworth a state championship his junior year, playing in front of standing-room crowds of 2,500. He was named Mr. Kansas. His dream of playing basketball at KU was realized. Simien was a coach's dream: A 6-foot-9 forward accurate inside 18 feet.
But the move from Leavenworth to Lawrence wasn't without drawback. "Leavenworth is a very small place," Simien said. "Everybody knows your name. Basically, the folks in town knew my curfew. I'd have four or five people call my house telling my folks if I was out late. It was all basketball back then. That was my main focus. But going to a big college -- and [Lawrence] was big for me back then -- and being engulfed in that college atmosphere was different.
"Simien admitted he was drinking too much as a sophomore. "Yeah, I was a pretty heavy partier back then," he said. "There was no specific place. Whatever night it was ... there was a different spot for a different night.
"But Simien felt there was something lacking during his sophomore year in 2002-03.
"My identity was being founded on who I was on the basketball court," he said. "Obviously, you run into bad performances, wins and losses, fluctuating circumstances. My happiness was based on those circumstances.
"Basically, I was in a situation like I had everything in the world that says would make you happy. I was the big man on campus. I had alcohol and girls and stuff like that. But all that stuff wasn't fulfilling.
"His frustration peaked in January 2003 when he had a season-ending shoulder injury. Suddenly, Simien couldn't play basketball. He had lost his identity.
"I was on a searching path before the injury," he said. "Injury or not, I was still longing for something to live for.
"Simien found what he was searching for through a series of events. He met Dan Coke, a former Kansas football player known around Lawrence as "campus evangelist." He slowly found his way to Victory Campus Ministries, a worship service that takes place each Wednesday on campus. Then, in the summer of 2003 with his shoulder still healing, Simien attended Athletes for Christ camp in Austin, Texas.
"Most of the guys were playing in All-America camps and stuff like that during the summer," Simien said. "I was going to summer school, and I didn't have anything to do. So I went to Austin.
"It's there where Simien was baptized, where he said he "decided to hand my life over to the Lord." Upon his return to Lawrence, Simien was a different person. He became a member of Morning Star, spending time with several members of the church youth group. One day in the fall of 2003, at the spur of the moment, he climbed a set of steep steps on campus and shouted a sermon to some 700 students going to classes.
"The whole thing changed him," Jayhawks coach Bill Self said. "Everything he goes through now is something he basically believes he's supposed to go through. He never says, `Why me?' He's like, `Why not me? I can handle it.' He's unique. He's one of the guys that understands the more he gives others, it will all come back to him. He's not hung up on points, stats, shots, money ... He's hung up on being the best person he can be. And part of being the best person he can be is being the best basketball player he can be.
"He's very solid in what he believes, and I've never been around a person who's more content with who he is than Wayne.
"Despite working out for a number of teams before the NBA Draft, Simien made sure he signed autographs at KU's basketball camp and made an appearance at Hogan's camp.
"He just showed up," Hogan said. "When I told him he didn't have to be there, he said, `Why wouldn't I be here? I've been here every year since I was in seventh grade.'"
Erik Fish, the associate pastor of Morning Star and president of the Midwest Student Ministries, spent the past 2½ years watching Simien change. He visited Simien this summer in Miami.
"One thing that sticks out about Wayne is his desire to see his life influence the world," Fish said. "Besides being a public role model, he wants to get down to the grassroots level of where people are, particularly young people and influencing them with face-to-face contact. I know several people in our city that Wayne personally spent time with: mentoring them, encouraging them and helping kids see there really is a purpose to their lives.
"Wayne's desire is to reflect a God who has had an impact on his life in a tangible, practical way, not just in religious rhetoric or by giving props to God in some way."
Among the stars
Last week, Simien stood on the practice court at AmericanAirlines Arena with some of the biggest names in the NBA. There he was, the 29th pick in the draft, amid teammates who included Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade, Alonzo Mourning, Jason Williams, Antoine Walker, Gary Payton and Udonis Haslem.
It's not a list of names that screams "playing time" for a rookie. But Self doesn't believe Simien is going to disappear among the Heat's stars.
"I think you'd always want someone next to Shaq who can shoot," Self said. "And Wayne isn't a good shooter, he's a great shooter. I know he needs to increase his range -- although I'll bet he made 20 shots for us this year straddling the 3-point line -- but I've never coached a guy who can shoot the ball better than him inside 18 feet."
Simien found a church in Miami and wants to start a foundation to help kids attend college. But his first goal is to make the Heat roster.
"Back in high school, a lot of guys had God-given talent and ability and, sure, I've been blessed with some of that, but I definitely had to work for a lot and hard work is not something foreign to me at any level," he said. "I know what it takes and know what to expect. But I don't anticipate not playing. I'm going to compete my best for minutes every day."
At Morning Star, at the church on top of the hill, they're rooting for Wayne Simien ... on and off the court.
By Dave Joseph
STAFF WRITER
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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