Young people need role models.

Morning Star Christian Church, 998 N. 1771 Road, wants to provide a firsthand glimpse of some famous ones for Lawrence-area youth — showing how they, too, can build successful lives based on faith, discipline and hard work.

That’s the idea behind “Night of Heroes,” an event Friday at the church that will bring former NBA player A.C. Green, Kansas University basketball standout Wayne Simien and Olympic heptathlon silver medalist Austra Skujyte to Lawrence to share their stories with boys and girls ages 10-18.

The event, which is free, is a follow-up to “Straight-Up Beautiful,” an April 17 conference at Morning Star for seventh- through 12th-grade girls that featured New York fashion model Genelle Frenoy and former KU volleyball player Lara Izokaitis.

The goal of that conference was to provide girls with positive role models and engage them in discussions about how to pursue their dreams. The event attracted about 150 Lawrence-area girls.

“We saw how successful ‘Straight-Up Beautiful’ was last spring, and we wanted to do something similar, but include both young men and young women,” said the Rev. John McDermott, Morning Star’s pastor.

“We thought, why don’t we do a ‘Night of Heroes’ and put as many role models in front of youth as we can, and let them share how God had allowed them to have the life that they have.”

McDermott immediately thought of inviting Green, a longtime friend, as a speaker.

“He’s really been a very good role model for years. It’s timely that he’s coming to Lawrence now, after the recent events in the NBA (the much-televised brawl during a game between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers) and in some college sports. He’s a really great role model for young people,” McDermott said.

Dallas Mavericks forward A.C. Green shoots a free throw during his 1,000th consecutive NBA game on March 13, 1999. Green will be in Lawrence Friday for Night

The church expects Friday’s event to attract about 250 people, many of them from Lawrence-area church youth groups.

Living to please God

Green, who retired from the NBA in 2002 after 16 years in the league, has known McDermott for about a decade.

The two became friends through Morning Star International, a worldwide family of churches and ministries to which Lawrence’s Morning Star Christian Church belongs.

This past summer, Green met Simien — who attends the Lawrence church — at a youth basketball camp in San Diego.

Green, Simien and McDermott later discussed the idea of having a special event in Lawrence at which the basketball players could speak to young people about their experiences.

The three men were able to come up with a date that would work for all of them, and that’s how “Night of Heroes” came about.

Green, in a telephone interview last week, explained his role in the event.

“I’m going to share personal things about my own travels and experiences, but at the same time talk about how valuable it is to have character, be honest and have respect. I’ll try to focus on those things while I’m there (in Lawrence),” he said.

Green was widely known, while he played in the NBA, as an advocate of sexual abstinence until marriage. In 1989, he established the A.C. Green Youth Foundation, with the main focus on sexual abstinence education.

He has been a committed Christian for more than 20 years, reading the Bible and praying every day.

“It’s important to have self-control and discipline. You have to be dedicated and have a focus to achieve whatever your goals are,” Green, 41, said.

“For me, I don’t need and I don’t look for adulation and a pat on the back. I just want to try and live a life to please God more than anyone else.”

Good sportsmanship

Green received attention and praise for his self-restraint after a 1994 incident — while playing for the Phoenix Suns — when an opposing player for the New York Knicks elbowed him in the mouth, knocking out one of Green’s teeth.

Rather than striking back, Green simply retrieved the tooth, wrapped it up and continued to play the game.

“More than anything else, it’s a decision. You can choose to respond and retaliate, or you can choose not to respond. There’s a choice in every decision,” Green said.

He lamented the way that good sportsmanship — on the part of both athletes and fans — has deteriorated these days, pointing to the Detroit brawl during the game between the Pistons and the Pacers.

“You’re disappointed that that happened. I hope that nobody in their right mind would have been pleased by that. By all means, I was disappointed that that took place in the sport I love and was a part of for so long,” Green said.