Herren shares harrowing drug tales

Inspirational speaker visits Wantagh High School

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“I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past five years,” former professional basketball player Chris Herren said. “And I truly believe that we’ve gone wrong with the way we educate our children about addiction. I think we want to focus on the last day, show them pictures of the worst day, and we forget about the first day.”

Chris Herren, a past point guard for the Boston Celtics, spoke to an auditorium of more than 75 people at Wantagh High school on Dec. 15 about his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. The presentation was funded by Nassau County Legislator Steven Rhoads to educate children about the hazards of narcotics.

“At 18 years old, I was a McDonald’s All-American, my dad was a politician and my mom was in corporate America,” Herren said. “On the outside everything looked great.”

After the Massachusetts native was drafted to the NBA in 1999, everything seemed perfect for the all-star basketball player. The only exception? His progressing addiction to painkillers such as OxyContin pills.

After seven felonies and four overdoses, Herren was heading in a downward spiral. “Every 10 minutes on the biggest night of my athletic life, I would run off the floor from warm-ups and check to see my dealer’s locations,” Herren said. “On the biggest night of my life, I was waiting behind a fence in my warm-up clothes for a guy with little yellow pills.”

After Herren was released from the Celtics, he went on to play for professional teams overseas in Italy, Poland, Turkey, China and Iran. It was during these months that he became heavily addicted to heroin and crystal meth. Upon returning from Europe, Herren overdosed in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot with a revoked license and crashed into a pole.

“What he sold me that day was so good, it almost killed me,” he said.

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