Former NBA Pro Discusses Story of Addiction at Lakeland
By Neal Rentz
Chris Herren seemed to have it all.
Herren was a basketball star in high school in Massachusetts and at Fresno State. He was drafted by the Denver Nuggets and later played for his hometown Boston Celtics.
But Herren’s life has been anything by idyllic. In fact, at the age of 32, he actually lost it briefly.
Herren’s decades long battle with substance abuse led him to become a heroin addict. “At 32 I was pronounced dead,” he said.
The experience was made worse by a comment from a police officer when he was in the hospital emergency room, Herren recalled. “Get this junkie out of here, he’s a waste,” said Herren, who was revived from a heroin overdose.
Herren has been touring the country to speak to youth about his struggle with drugs. Last week, he spoke to dozens of local residents at Lakeland High School. A hushed group of several dozen youths and adults listed to his talk.
Herren wrote about his life story in “Basketball Junkie: A Memoir” and was featured in an ESPN documentary. His talks have been attended by about 500,000 youths. He has discussed his life with CEOs and with employees of Sports Illustrated and other businesses.
Herren said his addiction began back in high school. His situation became worse in 1999 when he attended a party while attending Boston College when he began taking Oxycontin by purchasing a $20 pill from a schoolmate while going to a party. Herren’s drug abuse forced him to leave the college and transfer to Fresno State. That day would “change my life forever,” he recalled.
He would eventually pay $25,000 a month to feed his Oxycontin addiction. His addiction cost him his family for a year while he dealing with his addiction, including a stay in a sober house, Herren said, adding he has been sober for the past five-and-one-half years.
Herren impressed on the audience the need for youths to have enough confidence in them that they do not feel the need to drink or take drugs to socialize with their peers. When he was a teenager Herren recalled that he was convinced that he would never become an addict but he would be proved wrong.
Herren said drug and alcohol use as teens had a devastating effect on members of his high school basketball team in Falls River, Massachusetts, with seven of 15 team members becoming heroin addicts.
Rather than trying to scare youths by showing how alcohol and drugs can lead to death, schools should instead focus on how young people should decide not to begin to use drugs and alcohol as minors, Herren said.
If parents suspect their children of substance abuse they should have them drug tested by the family, Herren said.
One of the examples he gave of how he helped students was related in a story he told about a young girl who was bullied in school. Her father was often drunk, the girl told Herren. When her father is drunk, the girl told Herren she goes to her bedroom to “start cutting myself.” Herren inspired her to stand up to the bullies and she stopped harming herself.
Herren was invited to speak by the event’s co-sponsors Compass Westchester, which is proposing a sober living residence in Yorktown, and the Alliance for Safe Kids. Herren referred to Compass Westchester’s controversial proposal during his talk. “That house is for second chances,” he said.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/