NBA and Doc Rivers Reportedly Offer to Help Delonte West After Photo Surfaces Online

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/nba-doc-rivers-reportedly-offer-180845037.html



NBA and Doc Rivers Reportedly Offer to Help Delonte West After Photo Surfaces Online


Joe Price
Complex

Thu, September 24, 2020, 11:08 AM PDT





The NBA, Doc Rivers, Jameer Nelson, and the NBA Players Association have offered to help out former player Delonte West after a disturbing photo of him surfaced online.

A photo of Delonte West looking particularly rough surfaced earlier this week and went viral, with many showing concern for the 37-year-old. Reportedly taken in Dallas, he could be seen in dirty clothes and allegedly had asked for money on the street. TMZ reports that the league, his former coach Doc Rivers, and his former college teammate Jameer Nelson have already attempted to get in touch with him.

@CallTcooks
Delonte west really out here in north dallas  smh
1:46 PM · Sep 22, 2020·Twitter for iPhone


Earlier this year, a video showed him in handcuffs after he was beaten by an unnamed individual on the street. In the clip, an officer could be heard asking him why he had attacked someone else, to which he replied, "Walkin' down the street and he approached me with a gun." Later on in the clip, he could be heard saying, "I'm the real flip* president."

In January, it was reported that the NBPA had been in contact with West and trying to offer him support. They also said that they would be monitoring him throughout the year, and would assist him if he needed the help. Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge also confirmed that he tried to help West in the past.

"Delonte has obviously some troubles and some trials that he's trying to deal with in his life, and I just hope that he can fix his life and get back on a good path," Ainge said in January.


bob
MY NOTE: And we have players, living in luxury in the bubble in Orlando, complaining about not being with their families for 2 months. SMDH.


.

This poor guy has been suffering from mental illness for years. It is just so sad, I remember others have tried to help him. Someone better step in or we will be reading about him in the obituaries

This is one sad story

Very true. And very unfortunate. You're right Rosalie, someone better step in and soon. What kind of mental health issues has he had? Has any testing been done on him? Does he want help? Does he know he needs help or may need to take/have an objective look? The only mental health issue I'm intimately familiar with is dementia with my mother.

db

I believe he is on meds that help him stay "controlled".  However, when he goes off those meds all hell breaks lose. This is not the first time I have seen a story about him, it has been going on for years. I think many have tried to help him but he keeps going off the drugs and then all hell breaks lose. It is such a horrible story. He had a problem when he was here in Boston, they tried to get him help. It is just, unless he is in a controlled enviornment, this will continue to happen. I know Jameer Nelson was trying to help him a while ago. Sad. very sad.  We will read about him someday dead in a gutter. He does not seem to stay with it very long.

He attended high school with my daughter in MD. He has always been on meds. Good kid, great talent. Hope more of his peers step up and help.

Delonte West’s Mental Illness, Once Treated As A Joke, Was Never A Laughing Matter

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexreimer/2020/01/21/delonte-wests-mental-illness-used-to-elicit-laughs/#5af854f1347b

Alex Reimer
Contributor
SportsMoney

I write about the intersection between sports, culture and media.

One of the saddest parts of Delonte West’s downfall is that he didn’t suffer in silence. More than 10 years ago, the former NBA star revealed his lifelong battle with bipolar disorder. One day following practice, West opened up to reporters, explaining why he took a recent leave of absence from his team, the Cavaliers.

Earlier that month, West had blown up at a high school referee who was officiating one of Cleveland’s training camp scrimmages. The episode terrified him.

“I felt a feeling of anger and I just wanted to throw it all away and quit the team," he told reporters at the time, via ESPN. “I needed help.”

It’s apparent West’s demons are still haunting him. Disturbing video emerged late Monday of West getting brutally beaten in the streets of Washington D.C. by an unidentifiable person. In a second video, which was seemingly taken after the altercation, a deranged-looking West is seated on the sidewalk and rambling incoherently.

The unsettling footage has prompted many in the sports world to publicly express their concerns for West, including his former coach at St. Joseph’s, Phil Martelli, and college backcourt mate, Jameer Nelson. Some of the most poignant words came from Royce White, whose own professional basketball career was cut short due to mental health issues. “Sad to hear the news about Delonte West. We failed him,” he tweeted. “We should be talking about mental health honestly all the time, not just when celebrities are in crisis.”

For years, the world knew about West’s struggles with mental health. But that didn’t stop everyone from laughing.

It doesn’t seem so funny now.

West’s candor about bipolar disorder did not spare him from brutal mockery online during Twitter’s infancy, or from becoming tabloid fodder. In September 2009, he was arrested for carrying three guns during a traffic stop while driving a three-wheeled motorcycle. Even NPR couldn’t ignore the story’s hilarity. “Delonte West of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers is apparently serious about his role as a shooting guard. Too serious,” the lede reads from National Public Radio, where hosts do not speak above hushed tones.

Next came one of the most infamously unfounded scandals in sports history: rumors of West sleeping with LeBron James’ mom. The phony tip started as an anonymous email citing an anonymous source in Cleveland’s front office, which was good enough for the gossip website, Perez Hilton, to publish. The rumor reached such a fever pitch, LeBron was eventually forced to deny the allegations publicly — more than two years after they had first surfaced.

West has largely disappeared from the public sphere in recent years, save for some troubling photos of him standing shoeless outside of a fast-food restaurant in Houston or panhandling in Maryland. The Daily Mail also posted a breathless story featuring many photos of West’s dilapidated estate in suburban Maryland — and the revelation he was being sued by Bank of America over an unpaid credit card debt of nearly $108,000.

The widespread sympathy for West now stands in stark contrast to the laughs that were once issued at his expense. Woke Bill Simmons inducted West into his “Tyson Zone” for crazy athletes; publications frequently ranked West as one of the NBA’s “craziest players.” Over time, West began to downplay his bipolar disorder, even as he was candid about his other struggles.

In a 2015 Washington Post profile, “The fall and rise of Delonte West,” the ex-guard, who was playing in the NBA’s Development League at the time, opened up about his history of suicide attempts and current financial struggles. The piece includes an anecdote about West being unable to heat his eight-bedroom mansion. He blew through his $16 million fortune.

In the same article, however, West walks back his bipolar diagnosis. “I am bipolar — just like the rest of us in the world,” he told Rick Maese. “So bipolar is defined as something sad happens, you’re sad. Something happy happens, you’re happy. I think pretty much everyone in the world is like that. Now there’s different levels. How long do you stay sad? How does it affect your behavior? How do you handle these emotions?”

In just five years, the conversation surrounding mental health has changed exponentially, and especially in the world of sports. After several star players spoke out about their mental health challenges, including Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan, the NBA mandated each team employ at least one mental health professional on their staff. The environment is more open now.

West tried to expand the dialogue 12 years ago, but people weren’t ready. The public outreach is making up for desperately lost time.

This is such a tragedy. Someone has to help this guy. I pray for his sake some step up and get him the therapy and help he needs. I find this so disturbing, no one should have to suffer like this. Only God knows where this will end

It's sad to see things like this - not just that he was a former player, but really for anyone. Life is incredibly difficult, and having a meaningful conversation on mental health is long overdue. A lot of people are struggling on the inside with issues that we can't see. Mental health issues have a lasting stigma that keeps us from discussing these things on the forefront. That being said, to BobH's point, I don't have a single issue with NBA players complaining about not seeing their families for months on end. Someone else having it worse in life does not necessarily invalidate things that other people are struggling with.


KJ

k_j_88 wrote:It's sad to see things like this - not just that he was a former player, but really for anyone. Life is incredibly difficult, and having a meaningful conversation on mental health is long overdue. A lot of people are struggling on the inside with issues that we can't see. Mental health issues have a lasting stigma that keeps us from discussing these things on the forefront. That being said, to BobH's point, I don't have a single issue with NBA players complaining about not seeing their families for months on end. Someone else having it worse in life does not necessarily invalidate things that other people are struggling with.


KJ

Well said KJ. Your comments brings clarity to understanding mental health issues beyond what we can see. Humanity is filled with fragilities that exempts no one.

https://sports.yahoo.com/dallas-mavericks-mark-cuban-helping-delonte-west-mental-health-pandhandling-bipolar-040702403.html



Mavericks owner Mark Cuban picks up Delonte West at gas station, offers to pay for rehab


Ryan Young
Writer
Yahoo Sports

Sep 28, 2020, 9:07 PM



Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban personally picked up Delonte West at a Dallas-area gas station on Monday in an attempt to help the former NBA player.

Cuban, according to TMZ and ESPN, had been trying to get in contact with West for days after photos of him panhandling in the Dallas area surfaced last week. He finally connected with West at a gas station and reportedly took him to a local hospital.

Cuban, along with West’s family and friends, have been trying to get him to go to a drug rehabilitation facility — something Cuban has offered to pay for.

West was seen panhandling in the area last week.


Delonte West struggling after latest incident

West played in the league for eight seasons from 2004-12, most notably with the Boston Celtics, who selected him No. 24 in the 2004 NBA draft. He last played for the Mavericks in 2012, but was suspended twice and eventually waived.

He averaged 9.6 points and 3.6 assists throughout his career.

West revealed midway through his career that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, something he’s struggled with in recent years. He pleaded guilty to two weapons charges in 2010 and has been involved in several incidents since leaving the league.

He was spotted at a Houston-area Jack in the Box in 2016 in rough shape, and again earlier this year in a string of disturbing videos. West was seen being attacked in the middle of a Washington, D.C.-area street, and then again handcuffed while talking to police. West accused another man of pulling a gun on him.


bob


.