Basketball: A Salvation

On multiple occasions, former NBA star Delonte West has admitted that he did not have the most idyllic childhood. In fact, he told the Washington Post in 2015 that he had quite a troubled youth. During his younger days, he was bullied due to his red hair and brown skin.

Through it all, though, basketball was his salvation and his center. However, all that stopped when, in eighth grade, West suffered a leg injury during a game of basketball. Despite his young age, the basketball player started to use drugs when he could no longer play the game he loved…

A Dark Childhood

No questions asked, drugs only make dark times worse. His use of drugs caused Delonte West to spiral downward until he needed to be admitted to children’s hospitals due to suicidal thoughts and self-harm tendencies. “I mean, I was basically crying for attention,” West explained to The Washington Post. “Maybe 17 or 18, you tell the story differently. ‘Man, I tried to kill myself.’ At 31, you say, ‘What the hell was I doing?'”

Thankfully, West found a way out of his dark childhood days. That being said, if you or anyone that you know self-harms or has suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline immediately at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Making a Promise

Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital

During his time in the children’s hospital, West thought he would never escape the darkness of his childhood. He felt he had nowhere else to turn. Then, West remembered his mother taking him to church as a young child.

One particularly hard night in the hospital, West dropped to his knees and prayed to God, making a solemn promise. “You help me survive this and someday play pro basketball,” he prayed. “And I’ll make sure I glorify your name.” Incredibly, West made it through the night and left the hospital less than a month later. Everything seemed to be falling into place…

“Always Harder on Himself”

Eleanor Roosevelt High School

Following his religious awakening, Delonte West went back to school, enrolling in Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland. There, he became a standout player on the basketball team, eventually becoming the United States All-Met Player of the Year.

“I remember his first game playing JV,” recalled West’s high school coach, Glenn Farello. “I was upset, just going off on the team, letting them know how disappointed and frustrated I was. He raises his hand… ‘Delonte, you have something to say?’ [I said]. He says, ‘Coach, I’d like to apologize to you and all of my teammates. I feel I didn’t play to my capabilities tonight, and it’ll never happen again.’ I’m thinking to myself, ‘You’re the only one I’m happy with right now.’ But that’s Delonte — always harder on himself than anyone could be.”

Moving On

As a standout player at Roosevelt High School, West quickly earned a spot on the team of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There, he soon became regarded as one of the best players in the entire country, alongside greats like Jameer Nelson. During his time at Saint Joseph’s University, West averaged a whopping 19 points per game. Not too shabby at all!

West’s efforts not only helped the Saint Joseph’s Hawks go 30–2 in his final season and earn an Elite Eight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, but also earned him a spot in the NBA. After a dark childhood, everything was looking up for West.

Joining the NBA

After his junior year, West elected to leave Saint Joseph’s University after the Boston Celtics picked him as the 24th overall pick in the 2004 NBA draft. While, in his first season, West struggled with some minor injuries, he was able to turn it around quickly. By the 2005-06 season, he had become the starting point guard for the Celtics.

The following year, in a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, West scored a career-high 31 points in a double-overtime Celtics victory. Even more impressive, he earned all the points during the second half and two overtime periods. Impressive! Soon enough, every NBA wanted a piece of Delonte West!

SuperSonics and Beyond

After an incredible three seasons with the Celtics, in mid-2007, West and fellow teammate Wally Szczerbiak were traded to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for another basketball star, Ray Allen.

On the SuperSonics, West continued to put in a fantastic effort, game after game. In fact, his performance was so outstanding that, less than a year later, West ended up on one of the best teams at the time: the Cleveland Cavaliers. The move allowed the rising star not only to play for one of the most promising franchises in the NBA, but also alongside a young LeBron James. Unfortunately, no one knew that, behind the scenes, things were starting to turn dark for West once again…

Things Started to Change

After a particularly hard Cavaliers’ preseason game in 2008, West angrily exploded at a referee. The outburst led to a short, two-week break, during which a therapist diagnosed the player with bipolar disorder. “The ugly head [from my childhood] started to show itself again,” West, then 25 years old, explained to reporters when he returned to the team after two weeks. “It’s been haunting me my whole life, self-destructive behavior.”

People around the world truly appreciated West’s openness about his struggles. Now that he was working with a therapist and playing on one of the best teams in the NBA, many thought West had left the darkness behind. While West would eventually find the light, it would take him many years.

Not Enough

The fact that Delonte West remained so open about his struggles garnered him considerable sympathy, but it was not enough to put the team on the right track. While West continued to average 12 points per game, it was not enough to bring the Cavaliers further than the Eastern Conference Finals. There, they suffered a devastating loss to the Orlando Magic.

Understandably, after the Cavaliers lost, many wanted to know why. That’s likely why rumors started to crop up that Lebron James and West had problems working together. Although both denied the rumors, things would need to get worse before they got better…

Things Get Worse

After the devastating finals loss, West hoped to turn things around during the following season. Sadly, that’s not what happened. In fact, his off-court issues only worsened. In September 2007, a Fort Washington, Maryland, a police officer pulled West over during a routine traffic violation. However, it would not turn out to be routine in the slightest.

Following a search of the vehicle, police found three loaded guns in West’s possession. As a result, a judge ordered the basketball player to eight months of home detention, 40 hours of community service, and two months of probation. And this was only the beginning of West’s downward spiral…

The Lockout Exacerbates the Situation

Mental illnesses like bipolar disorder are incredibly hard to deal with, which West learned firsthand. After his arrest and charging, the basketball player started blowing through money, especially during the 2011 NBA lockout. During that time, he needed to pick up ordinary jobs, working at both Home Depot and a furniture store in Brandywine, Maryland.

At the same time, West was starting to tweet strange jokes that raised many eyebrows. “Broke down in the ATM line,” one of West’s tweets read. “25 cars behind me and I already reached my daily limit… I’m broke n my cars broke. Where’s my therapist???” Looking back, West says that, during that time, he “heard the laughter [of his childhood bullies] again.”

One Last Chance

Following the NBA lockout, one last NBA team decided to give West a final chance: the Dallas Mavericks. However, in his single year on the team, the Mavericks suspended him twice for “detrimental conduct,” before finally letting him go.

After being fired from the team, West would stare at the Mavericks stadium from his apartment balcony, heartbroken as he saw fans file into American Airlines Arena. “I couldn’t move…I sulked….I cried every day, stopped eating,” West recently recalled of the time. “I felt I was so close. There was this perception of me because of one bad decision I made a few years back in Cleveland — I felt I was on the cusp of people letting it go.” Of course, that wasn’t the case.

A Light in the Darkness

In those darkest of days, there was one light in West’s life: Caressa Madden. The two met at a party held by a mutual friend. The two fell in love almost instantly. It didn’t matter that West was living on basketball unemployment and could not afford to heat his place, Madden loved the basketball player with all her heart.

This got so dire that West proposed to a newly pregnant Madden by cutting a snippet off a jump rope he had and putting it around her ring finger. “It’s all I can afford, baby,” West told her at the time. “I’m broke, heat ain’t working, brain ain’t working right, but I love you.”

A Dire Winter

There was another bit of good news for Delonte West during this time: he had already paid off his $1 million, eight-bedroom house in Maryland. However, following his dismissal from the Mavericks, he could not afford to heat the home. During the harsh Maryland winter, things became quite dire.

The furnace went out, and West could not afford a new water heater. Instead, he needed to opt for portable space heaters. He even recalls a time when he needed to heat water on the stove so a pregnant Madden could take a warm bath. Despite the darkness, he found himself in, West knew he needed to work hard to turn things around. So, he did!

Working Hard

West spent the next few years of his life working hard, playing for a variety of NBA D-League teams, as well as a few games in both Venezuelan and Chinese leagues. At the time, his D-League Texas Legends’ teammates said that West was someone “no longer consumed by negative energy.”

At the same time, although it made him sad, West needed to sell some of his NBA possessions to help provide for Madden, who he married, and his children. “I never had no shame in my game. Look, I’m liquidation sale, baby,” West recalled thinking at the time. “Everything must go.” Things had truly started to look up for Delonte West. But he would need to fall one more time before finding true redemption…