Excerpt from Batista's Book

Speaking of Charles Barkley, I met another of my basketball heroes thanks to wrestling, though I can’t say that he was much of a Batista fan. In fact, his idol turned out to be Triple H.

The player was Alonzo Mourning. He’s best known now as a star for the Miami Heat in the NBA, but back at the end of the eighties and early nineties he was starting for the Georgetown Hoyas, then as now one of the country’s top college basketball teams. Seeing as how I was from Washington, D.C., Georgetown University was my local team and I was a big fan of theirs and Mourning.

Hunter and I did a celebrity pool tournament at the tail end of 2004. The only thing I remember about the tournament was the fact that Alonzo was in the celebrity tournament, too. I, of course, turned into a little kid. I was just about jumping up and down. “Man, it’s great, it’s Alonzo Mourning, yeah!” I was thinking to myself.

Anyway, Alonzo saw us and recognized Hunter. He came over and started talking to him, telling him he’s a big fan, the whole thing. Hunter thanked him and they started talking.

I have to admit, I was kind of jealous. Here’s this guy I absolutely idolized, and he was talking to my friend for a good half hour and pretty much ignoring me. I just stood there, taking it all in.

So, they’re talking and talking. Finally, Hunter says goodbye to him and we all move on. As we’re walking away, Hunter turns to me and says, “Who was that, anyway?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked.
“No. Who was it? Really. Who was it?”

That sort of thing happened a lot that night. People would come up to Hunter and he had no idea who they were. He has tunnel vision sometimes. If it doesn’t involve wrestling, he doesn’t know about it.

Hunter has all sorts of fans across the world. As a matter of fact, my mom is a great fan. She calls him a living legend.