St. John's Mustapha Heron closer to home and family

It started with a household accident, what seemed an ordinary type of thing that usually resolves itself in a few days.

Thalia Heron, mother of St. John’s forward Mustapha Heron, struck her head on a shelf when she was trying to pick up a pot in the summer of 2017.

At first, she thought nothing of it, but three days later, she began having incredible headaches, the kind with which you can’t do anything but lie in a dark room. In the next seven months, she would have five emergency room visits and 30 doctor’s appointments as she tried to deal with the brutal effects of a concussion.

Mustapha, then in his second year playing at Auburn, felt helpless living so far from his family.

“I was so worried about her that it was hard for me to focus,” he said. “Every time I had a couple of days off, I would try to come back home and help take care of her. She couldn’t drive. She couldn’t watch TV. She had to take a leave from her job. I knew I needed to be closer.”

Heron declared for the NBA Draft, but after weighing his options, he decided to return to college and find a school closer to his family in West Haven, Connecticut. This is how St. John’s was able to get the rarest of gifts this season: An all-conference transfer student from a top 20 program who was immediately eligible to play.

Heron was granted a hardship waiver by the NCAA, which meant he could be eligible to play immediately if he picked a school within 90 miles of his home. He chose St. John’s, where coach Chris Mullin was gathering transfers to surround Shamorie Ponds, the Big East’s preseason player of the year.

Five of St. John’s top six scorers began their career at another school or junior college. They are a big reason why St. John’s has a solid shot to return to the NCAA Tournament this season despite enduring some tough recent losses in Big East play.

St. John’s opened the season with 12 straight wins — its best start in 36 years — and heads into Sunday’s game against Georgetown at Madison Square Garden with a 15-4 record.

The 6-5 Heron has proved to be an ideal wingman for Ponds. Heron, the team’s second-leading scorer, is averaging 15.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists. He had a season-high 27 points in a big win over Rutgers and scored 16 second-half points in St. John’s biggest win, on New Year’s Day over then-No. 16 Marquette.

“He’s one of the better college players in the country,” Mullin said last week. “He had two great years at Auburn, so he had that experience. He’s a mature kid physically and emotionally. He kind of just fit right in from day one.”

Heron said he already knew a lot of his new teammates at St. John’s from having played AAU with the Rens in New York City.

“From the first day I got here, I knew we had something,” Heron said. “We were a whole bunch of guys who had transferred from other schools and knew how to mesh with people. So it was like on the first day, we knew we were going to make this work.”

Being closer to home has been helpful for a number of reasons.

First, Heron has gotten to spend more time with his mother. Thalia has been able to return to her job at Yale Hospital and has attended a handful of her son’s games. She still gets headaches, said his father, Bryan, and is bothered so much by bright lights that she can’t drive at night.

Second, Heron has been able to visit children who are a part of the Skills Academy and Reading Program he started with his father, a social worker, in Waterbury, Connecticut. As an elite high school basketball player, Heron said he had a roomful of free sneakers, bookbags and sweats by the time he was 15 years old. He decided to start a reward-based reading program in which he would give them away to students who completed a certain number of books and wrote book reports.

“My dad takes pictures of the book reports, sends them to me and I read them,” Heron said. “First book, you get a bookbag. Second book, you don’t get anything, but that’s to push you to the third one, where you get sneakers. Then you keep going with T-shirts and sweatsuits.”

Though technically a junior, Heron said he will have enough credits to graduate with a degree in communications at the end of this year. After that, he plans to get a master’s degree so he can serve as an example to kids when he talks about the importance of staying in school.

“Going away, I learned a lot about family and community,” he said. “It’s been great to be home. It’s great playing in New York.”

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.