Willie Cauley-Steinnumber 6 part Draft en 2015is out of the NBA after an irregular career that took him to the Kings, Warriors, Mavericks and Sixers.
The pivot of 2.13 m. and 31 years oldwho last season played in the Openjobmetis Varese After playing for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League, he has recognized his pill addiction problems (bought fake Percocet pills on the black market that they carried fentanyl).
“I could easily be dead”said Cauley-Stein, who in his final season in the NBA (2021-2022) averaged 1.7 points and 2 rebounds in 20 games, in an interview given to the ‘New York Times’.
I know the bullet I dodged. I asked for help before it was too late and I got better, but basketball has been a lot harder to recover from.
“I know the bullet I really dodged. I asked for help before it was too late and I got better, but basketball has been a lot harder to recover from,” he admitted to Kyle Tucker who was a former star at the University of Kentucky under John Calipari.
I didn’t like who I saw in the mirror and I was going to have to keep using drugs to be able to play.
“I didn’t like who I saw in the mirror and I was going to have to keep using drugs to be able to play. I told my agent, ‘I need help.’ As soon as I called and got into the NBA drug program and told them everything, it was instant relief,” he said.
Cauley-Stein’s NBA downfall began with a deadly shooting at his home
Willie Cauley-Stein’s decline began after a tragedy occurred at his home in Sacramento. On August 23, 2019, three friends were shot at the home of the then Warriors player and one of them died.
“That kind of started a downward spiral in my mental health. Trying to deal with that, playing at the same time and my wife’s pregnancy were just too much and too much to handle, and I took pain pills trying to just escape reality,” he recalls.
I was on so many pills that I was asleep all the time…or when I was awake, I wasn’t really there.
Willie Cauley-Stein He suffered from depression after his grandmother fell ill. and his prescription drug abuse grew: “I was taking so many pills that I was asleep all the time…or when I was awake, I wasn’t really there.”
“I didn’t handle it the right way. I really missed getting to say goodbye to my grandmother. I could have been closer to her, but I did exactly the opposite,” she laments.
Willie Cauley-Stein recounts his difficult departure from the NBA
Her grandmother died on December 1, 2021, and six days later Cauley-Stein checked into a rehabilitation clinic for her pill abuse.
In January 2022, he was fired by the Dallas Mavericks: “The team realized I had no energy, no love, no personality, nothing. Drugs took it all away from me.”
Willie Cauley-Stein with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks
Willie Cauley-Stein relates that at the time, “I think I’m playing hard, playing ball, doing my thing, and then I hear, ‘He doesn’t seem like he likes basketball.’ It didn’t occur to me until I got sober and did the work that I realized, ‘Oh, this is what people saw.’ The spark that I have when I talk, I didn’t have that.”
Willie Cauley-Stein Reconnects With Basketball With His Kentucky Family
This summer, Cauley-Stein is trying to make amends with basketball by participating in The Basketball Tournament, a tournament in which players with a prestigious NCAA past compete for a $1 million prize.
The former Kentucky native competes alongside former teammates James Young, Aaron Malik Harrison, Andrew Harrison and Tyler Ulis on a team they have dubbed The Family.
Willie Cauley-Stein playing The Basketball Tournament with The Family
“When they asked me to play in this tournament, it was just too perfect. It was just rehashing those old days, exactly the way they were. They showered me with all this love that I needed, absolutely needed, and I played the best basketball I’ve played in years. That was great,” Willie Cauley-Stein explained about his experience at ‘The Basketball Tournament’.
Last season he averaged 9.7 points and 8 rebounds with Openjobmetis Varese, with whom he grabbed 20 rebounds in a FIBA Europe Cup game.
