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    • NBA Players who Remained Surrounded by Drug and Alcohol Issues

    by admin in NBA | Comments Off on NBA Players who Remained Surrounded by Drug and Alcohol Issues

    Stardom, media hype, pressures and expectations are not always easy to handle. Most of the sports personalities learn the ways to enjoy the fame and deal it with great success. But few of them find it very difficult and fell victim to the notorious habits such drugs and alcohol. In basketball history, we find so many cases where talented players started to use drugs to solve their own problems but eventually their careers got ended instead of their problems. Here, we have a list of some of those unfortunate basketball players:

    Roy Tarpley

    Roy Tarpley, the promising Michigan University player, was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in 1986 NBA Draft. Tarpley seemed to be a talented player and believed to have a bright future in professional basketball but he destroyed his career completely by using cocaine He played for the Mavericks only four seasons. On October 1991, he was banned from the NBA due to drug addiction. He made a come back in the league in 1994 but his return was short lived, as he was permanently banned from the league in 1995 for using alcohol.

    Richard Dumas

    After a successful collegiate career, Richard Dumas was selected by the by the Phoenix Suns in 1991. But soon, it was realized that Dumas was involved in drugs and alcohal. During the 1991-92 season, he was suspended from the league for violating its substance abuse policy. Few years later, he was also arrested on the complaints of crack cocaine possession and drug paraphernalia. Dumas appeared to be talented basketball players but he ruined some precious years of his NBA career by using drugs.

    Damon Stoudamire

    Damon Stoudamire was drafted in 1995 by the Toronto Raptors. He remained controversial throughout his career due to several drug related incidents. He was arrested thrice for marijuana possession. In November 2002, Stoudamire and his teammate Rasheed Wallace were in a vehicle that was pulled over for high speed driving. Police also found small amount of marijuana in the vehicle. But both were released after pleading innocent. Earlier, he was charged for drug possession when police found a bag of marijuana in his home while responding to a burglar alarm. In July 2003, Damon Stoudamire was arrested on carrying almost 40 grams of marijuana when he attempted to board a plane at Tucson International Airport. The team immediately suspended him for three months and fined him $250,000.

    Michael Ray Richardson

    Michael Ray Richardson played in NBA for only eight years, mainly as a player for New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets. He was appeared to be a talented and versatile player but he could not live up to the expectations as his NBA career was halted by drugs. Despite entering a drug rehabilitation program, he remain drug addicted and failed three cocaine test. In 1986, he got banned for life on the violation of NBA’s drug policy, and then he moved to Europe to play professionally for the next 13 years.

    David Thompson

    Former Denver Nuggets, David Thompson was a dynamic and impact full player whose stay in NBA was a brief one. Drugs, alcohol and cocaine all affected his career immensely. In 1982, by his last year in Denver Nuggets, he became drug addicted. He joined drug rehabilitation clinic to reform himself but all efforts went in vain. The last nail in the coffin was the tragic accident in a nightclub when he was fell down from the stairs and got a severe knee injury which forced him out of the league at a relatively young age.

    Bernard King

    Bernard King was one of those players who grabbed the headlines more for their off-court issues than their on court performances. He was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in 1977. In same year, he was arrested on charges of possession of marijuana, prowling and resisting arrest. He received a 60-day suspension and paid a fine of $100 dollars. Just one year later, he was arrested again on cocaine possession charge while driving a maroon Corvette. A routine search in local precinct uncovered a small amount of cocaine in an envelope found in his pocket. In addition, he was charged with reckless driving and driving without a license.

    Spencer Haywood

    Spencer Haywood began his professional career with the ABA, instead of NBA due to its eligibility rules. In 1970, he started to play for Seattle SuperSonics. Unfortunately, he fall victim to drug abuse. During the 1980 NBA finals, he was suspended for using crack cocaine. His drug addiction began to affect his play, eventually he got retired from pro basketball in 1983.

    Marvin Barnes

    Marvin Barnes, the record holder of leading scorer in a single school game (52 points), started his professional career in 1974. He was given the nickname, “Bad News”, for his frequent off-court problems as he was being arrested for drug possession, burglary, and trespassing. Because of his drug use, his NBA career was cut short and he was left homeless and imprisoned. After multiple rehabilitation programs, he went back to his province, where he runs a foundation that seeks to help young people from making the same mistakes he did.

    Walter Davis

    Walter Davis, was a standout college basketball players who was selected to play on the USA basketball team at 1976 Summer Olympics. In 1977, he started his pro career with Phoenix Suns. With every passing year, he was climbing the ladder of success when he got caught up with drugs. His cocaine addiction effected his play on the court and his numbers began to drop. He underwent drug rehabilitation twice to deal with drug addiction but not came up with good results. He started to miss games due to a combination of drugs, alcohol and injuries.In 1987, he was found involved in a huge drug scandal along with several other players from the Phoenix Suns. Besides Davis, seven Suns players and officials were indicted for trafficking narcotics but all survived from life time bans and trials as none of them tested positive.

    (Suns guards Jay Humphries, Grant Gondrezick, center James Edwards and former players Garfield Heard and Mike Bratz as well as the team manager and photographer all indicted to be a part of drug venture.)

    John Drew

     John Drew, former Atlanta Hawks guard, was the first player ever to be banned for life under the NBA’s drug policy. His career came to an end due to the cocaine addiction. During the 1983 season, he missed a huge number of games as he underwent an intensive, eight-week detoxification treatment. While he would win the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award in 1984 for seemingly having overcome his addiction, Drew relapsed into drug abuse in 1985, and was banned from the NBA in 1986 for multiple violations of the league’s substance abuse policy, including various arrests for drug possession.

    John Lucas

     John Lucas played for fourteen years in the NBA despite his drug addiction that nearly destroyed his career. Twice in his career Lucas was banished from the NBA for using drug. First time in December 1984, second time in 1986 off-season, he was tested positive for cocaine. In order to stay in the league, Lucas underwent anti-drug and anti-alcohol treatment. He spent four more years in the league before retirement. After successful drug rehabilitation, he returned to NBA as a coach and also started to operate a substance abuse recovery program to help other athletics, the program specializes in drug and alcohol education, treatment and rehabilitation.

    William Bedford

    William Bedford former Phoenix Suns center, was regarded a bright prospect until drug addiction derailed his career in 1993. He continued to have drug problems when he left the NBA. He was arrested for drug possession twice between 1996 and 1997. In 2001, he was arrested for trafficking 25 pounds of marijuana. After that incident, he was arrested twice for marijuana. Since 2003, he has been serving a 10-year prison sentence on drug-related charges and is scheduled for release in 2013.




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