How do you go from hitting game winning with LeBron James a famous basketball player, and making 16 million dollars to becoming a homeless man? This is the story of Delonte West.
Delonte had the toughest childhood in the NBA; he lived in a bad neighborhood, his parents divorced, and kids at school constantly bully him because of his red hair making feel like an outcast. But there was something that Delonte had and that was basketball that’s what gave him his ego, that’s what gave him his identity.
But when he was twelve, he had the most devastating accident a basketball player will hate; it was an ankle sprain and that kept him side lined for months, that was his first time he couldn’t play basketball. It leads him into a deep depression, his mum saw how depressed and sad he was and told him to stay with his dad for a while, but this made things worse. It’s because his dad couldn’t care what his son was going through, he made friends with bad kids in his neighborhood leading him to experimenting with prescription drugs and alcohol.
After his leg healed, he thanked God he had something to take his mind off all his misfortune. In high school he was already a star athlete who got an average of at least twenty points in a game, it was obvious he had the skill to make it in the NBA.
In college or university he took things to another level scoring at least 19 points per game, he was recognized in Boston his childhood dreams were starting to come true.But as quick as things were coming up for him the more they crumbled, he got new injuries started to derail him, and it was just his first year in the NBA.
2008 was the year he showed his real colors. After playing with LeBron James his dreams was truly coming true.But he often started fights with teammates, and he was told to see a doctor, he was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which made him to have high and low emotions. He started taking a prescription for his disorder, and meet up with professionals and learned to live with his diseases. But despite that he still acted in a strange way.
He was living a secret life no one knew about. On the night of 17 September 2009, he was chased by police on his bike and was caught holding more than ten guns. He became the talk of the town and was questioned by people why he did it.
And if that wasn’t the worst LeBron James found out that Delonte was sleeping with his mum, making them to lose the game. During the lock out season in the NBA no player was getting paid, and it seems Delonte was not handling his money well. It even went to the extent he had to work at a grocery store, it even went to the extent he had to sell any piece of memorabilia he had, just tried to forget his pain.
His team suspended him, he later got a severe injury that ended his career forever. He disappeared nowhere to be found.
He later appeared in the photo above where he looked to have reached rock bottom, begging for alms on the street.
