Schools

Former NBA Player Herren Shares Story of Drug Abuse With Tappan Zee Students

Chris Herren told the assembled students and staff packed into Tappan Zee High School's gym Tuesday that he is thankful for his bad days because they give him the opportunity to speak to kids.

Herren said he has spoken in front of over 300,000 high school students over the last three years about his bad days, primarily the drug abuse that cost him his basketball career and nearly his life.

Those bad days ranged from failed drug tests that got him tossed out of Boston College to suicide attempts and the drug overdose that led him to crash his car into a utility pole. He was revived after being dead for nearly 30 seconds.

Herren spoke about his own refusal to listen at similar assemblies when he was in high school in college, including a mandatory session at Boston College.

"I had the nerve to sit up in the corner of the gymnasium," Herren said. "I had the nerve to text, to talk, to judge. Most importantly, I believed in my heart that I was above that man's story."

Later that night, he did cocaine for the first time even though growing up a Boston Celtics fan, he had seen the potential consequences.

"Cocaine to me growing up a Celtics fan was Reggie Lewis and Len Bias, two guys who passed away from it," Herren said. "When I thought saw cocaine, I thought of death."

Herren started to leave, but a girl who had been using the drug with his roommate dared him to try it, so he did. He failed his first drug test the next day.

"At 18 years old, I looked at that one line of cocaine and thought I'll try this drug one time," Herren said. "I'll never do it again. I did the line of cocaine and walked out of the room. I had no idea when I promised myself at 18 years old it was a one-time deal, that one time deal was going to turn into an 18-year nightmare."

One of his messages to Tappan Zee's students was to be themselves. He said it was a desire to be something other than himself that often led him to drink and use drugs. He also spoke about the risk of abusing prescription drugs. He talked about how pills led him to heroin.

In addition to the three failed drug tests at Boston College, Herren failed another at Fresno State. He had a brief NBA career with the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics. He spoke about the day he found out he would live out a childhood dream and start at point guard for the Celtics. He called his drug dealer for a fix and when the man was stuck in traffic outside the arena, Herren ran out to his car in his warm-up outfit to get the drugs. 

Herren said he finally got into a long-term rehabilitation clinic with the help of former NBA player Chris Mullin, but still faltered once more after pleading to leave for one day to witness the birth of his third child. He used drugs the night the child was born. He said the counselor at the clinic told him to call his wife and tell her he would never bother her again and that she should tell his children that he had been killed in a car accident so they could move on without him. Today he says he is thankful that those words helped him finally stop using drugs. 

Herren wrote about his story with the Providence Journal columnist Bill Reynolds in the book Basketball Junkie. ESPN aired the Emmy-nominated documentary Unguarded, also about Herren's career and battle with drug abuse, in 2011. 
Herren now speaks all over the country and in 2011, he formed the Herren Project to educate people at risk of addiction. 

The assembly was to be followed by a mock DWI presentation for the senior class with Orangetown Police and other local emergency responders demonstrating what happens in the case of a fatal motor vehicle accident caused by drunk driving. The presentation was stopped just as the students were about to head outside because all of the emergency services personnel had to leave due to the explosion at Nyack College


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