For a young man from Massachusetts who grew up dreaming about playing professional basketball, signing with the Boston Celtics would seem to be a dream come true. Instead, basketball legend Chris Herren saw his dream vanish due to a 14-year addiction to prescription pain pills, cocaine and heroin.
In the early 1990s, Herren was one of the most talented high school basketball players in the nation. His decision to attend Boston College University was covered by Sports Illustrated and other national magazines. Even before the college basketball season officially started, Herren failed a drug due to marijuana and cocaine use. In the first game of the season he suffered a broken wrist that benched him for the rest of the season. After failing two more drug tests, he was kicked off the team and expelled from the university.
Herren got his basketball career back on track after transferring to Fresno State University in California. Off the court, his personal life was another story. By his junior year, he had begun to use heroin and failed another school drug test. He was allowed to rejoin the basketball team after spending 28 days at a drug rehabilitation center.
Despite a college career that was marked by failed drug tests and rehab, Herren was drafted by the Denver Nuggets in 1999. On a visit to his hometown of Fall River, a friend introduced him to OxyContin. According to Herren, he soon developed a $25,000 per month OxyContin habit.
After a year with the Nuggets, Herren was traded to the Celtics. On the night of his first game with his dream team, Herren waited in full uniform outside the stadium for a drug delivery from his dealer. After 25 games with the Celtics, the team chose not to renew his contract. He began playing in a European basketball league and started to shoot up heroin.
What followed was a series of overdoses, car accidents, visits to rehab and relapses. He got married and had two children but continued to use heroin and other drugs. In 2008, Herren received help from basketball great Chris Mullin and was able to undergo nine months of intensive rehabilitation. He has been alcohol and drug-free since completing treatment. Herren has launched a basketball mentoring program and co-wrote a memoir entitled Basketball Junkie. He was also the subject of Unguarded, a 2011 ESPN documentary that examines his basketball career and history of substance abuse.
In addition to his basketball program, Herren heads up a nonprofit that helps pay for drug treatment for addicts. He also travels to high schools and colleges across the country to tell young people his story as a warning about the dangers of drug use. He ends the story with this message: “All of those kids I shot up with never said they started with heroin or coke. You tell me if marijuana and alcohol are gateway drugs.”