A Junkie On The Court: The Ordeal Of The NBA Player Addicted To Heroin
The data on the bank accounts of former NBA players is, in many cases, surprising. Some knew how to invest their fortunes correctly and managed to increase their assets if possible.
However, statistics reveal that 60% of the stars of the best league in the world went bankrupt in a period of only 4 years since his retirement.
A large part of these athletes live a life marked by praise, money and dubious companies since their college years, when they begin to excel in sports and the smell of future money intensifies. They are treated like stars and their environment pushes them to become basketball and advertising machines to quickly make their talent profitable. These two facets subordinate the need to take care of the education, both formal and informal, of young people, especially taking into account that many players come from families with serious economic problems
The humble origins of many African-American players, from conflictive and unstructured families, result in excessive expectations regarding the growing success of the offspring. There are cases to give and take. One of the most famous was the sad story of Len Bias, an athletic 2.03 meter tall forward. His time at college (between the ages of 16 and 18) and university (between the ages of 18 and 22) was brilliant, and he was designated All-American in his freshman course.
Comparisons of Len Bias with Michael Jordan became a constant in the media, and was finally chosen in the 1986 Draft, in second position by the Boston Celtics. For those less educated in the noble sport of basketball, this choice means that Bias signed his first contract for an NBA team and was selected as the second best young player on the planet.
At 22 years old, Bias was the happiest man in the world, and given that guaranteed contract of several million dollars, he went to celebrate with his friends. That same night, the young promise Len Bias died from a cardiac arrhythmia caused by a cocaine overdose
Len Bias was never able to play a game in the NBA, and his death was a tremendous shock for his family, his loved ones and the entire sports world in general. It took years for the NBA to recover from that blow, and the Bias case inaugurated certain protection and control measures for university players.
Chris Herren’s life is worthy of a Hollywood movie. His long relationship with drugs, which brought him to the brink of death on several occasions, deserves to be explained.
A native of Fall River, a small town in the state of Massachusetts, Herren was a child prodigy with the orange ball. His explosive physique, his good height to perform in the point guard position (1.90m) and his magical and fast-paced style of play made him one of the great attractions of the university league, as well as one of the best future projects of the NBA. It was precisely It was during his college days in Boston, when Herren first flirted with drugs
Chris Herren had a certain reputation as a troubled and cheeky boy. During his previous stage, in high school, he had been caught drinking alcohol several times, even in the hours before important games. Obviously, the jump from alcohol to cocaine was big.
A control of illegal substances in the university league detected the positive for cocaine consumption in Herren’s blood The young player had been caught again, and in this case with a hard drug in his blood. The leaders of Boston University decided to kick him off the team. Herren ended up at the mediocre University of Fresno, in California. His situation in those latitudes worsened fatally: Herren had constant remorse and suffered serious depression due to the shame caused by the public revelation of his dalliance with drugs. He considered himself a failure for having failed his small town, where he was an idol. His family and everyone in Fall River had high expectations for him, and he felt that the drug deal had definitely let them down and that his public image would never be the same.
The player began his journey in Fresno promising not to consume any type of illegal substance again. A promise that, years later, was revealed to be unfulfilled.
Despite everything, Herren progressed on the court until he became one of the best players in the university league, averaging scandalous statistics, which were only clouded by his great irregularity. Even so, the basketball world saw him with great options of being chosen in the Draft, which finally happened.
His time in the NBA
Herren married and had a son before making his NBA debut. His wife was unconditionally supportive in the face of his serious psychological and addiction problems, and cushioned the frequent ups and downs of the point guard, who did not show any signs of his problems in public. He was chosen number 33 in the draft by the Denver Nuggets Herren was facing a test by fire with his signed professional contract and the possibility of finding a place among the best. An opportunity not only to succeed athletically, but to take responsibility for his life and leave his demons behind.
In his first year as a professional, Herren was tied at short by veteran Nuggets players such as Antonio McDyess and Nick Van Exel, both leaders and established stars of the league. Just seeing him arrive through the hallways to go to his first training session, Van Exel intercepted him and, accompanied by the giant McDyess, told Herren: “Boy, we know your resume, so we’ll keep a close eye on you.” So they did, and Herren himself acknowledged many years later that it was one of his healthiest seasons
A 22-year-old boy playing in the NBA, earning millions of dollars. And totally out of control. His life was deteriorating at an astonishing speed. In his second season, Herren was traded to the Boston Celtics, one of the NBA’s most successful franchises, and his hometown. The prodigal son was returning home. At that stage he began using a drug called oxycodone, a pain reliever that was frequently used to relieve pain caused by joint and muscle injuries. But Herren lost control and began taking oxycodone compulsively.
Herren’s own narration of the events is horrifying, and although he publicly showed an image of just another basketball player, psychologically I was destroyed unable to disengage and with an anxiety that overwhelmed him.
From Boston to Türkiye: a basketball season
His discreet season triggered his departure from Boston, and Herren left American lands to sign for Galatasaray of Turkey, a team that was preparing to compete in the playoffs. There he achieved very outstanding numbers. The following year, he ended up in China, where he also established himself as an effective point guard. His good performance silenced doubts about his possible mental state or his non-sports problems. As often happens in the world of sports, the human side of the protagonists is reduced to nothing by the intensity of the spotlight on the playing field.
In this hermetic life, Chris Herren had switched from oxycodone to more and more types of stimulants. He had started using heroin, one of the most dangerous drugs. According to his own accounts, he had all types of drugs at his disposal in any of the countries he visited.
The player fell into a maelstrom of drugs, despair, depression and madness In her personal hell, not even her two children could be enough of a reason to overcome his addictions. She was on the verge of suicide at several points, aware that she was a burden on her family. His constant relapses were costing his wife her health. Herren relates that, in one of his constant delusions, he abandoned his family and lived for a few days as a homeless man, after drinking alcohol with a homeless man on the street.
His story seemed to be doomed. He was admitted to a detoxification center thanks to an old friend of his mother, who died years before. Little by little, Herren was getting out of the hole, but not without constant setbacks and relapses. The director of the center where Herren was hospitalized allowed him to leave the facilities for a few hours to be able to attend the birth of his third child. Right after such an event, Herren went to look for alcohol at a liquor store.
Upon finding out about this episode, his wife told him that if he did not return to the center to finish his detoxification, she would never want to see him again. He returned, and there he met one of the assistants, who, after witnessing several breaches of internal rules and being aware of the pain it caused his wife and children, blurted out to Herren:
“Why don’t you call your wife and leave her alone already? Don’t you realize that you are bringing your family down?”
Overcoming
Chris Herren managed to defeat the devil Currently, he is fully rehabilitated and is dedicated to giving conferences and talks throughout the United States to tell his story and raise awareness among the public, especially young people, about the effect of substances.
Drugs marked his career, which could have been amazing, and his personal life. Herren no longer plays in the NBA, but he can be proud of having moved forward, of having managed to be an example. He currently lives with his wife and children, and comments that, after many years, you can shave by looking in the mirror every morning
A documentary that narrates his entire life
Don’t miss the documentary about the life of Chris Herren:
