Willie Cauley-Stein is still quite young, but he has already been through a lot. The center is 30 years old and currently has no place in the NBA. Meanwhile, the player initially showed great promise and experts pointed out that a great future awaited him. Cauley-Stein worked diligently and improved season after season. However, an incident that had nothing to do with basketball ended up affecting his sports life. Willie began to withdraw from the Dallas lineup at the end of 2021, and in early January 2022, he was released from the team. What happened to the basketball player then, only his family and friends knew. Today, the center revealed what really caused his decline.
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Cauley-Stein spent more than two months in an inpatient rehabilitation facility receiving treatment for substance abuse. Willie thought he was taking a certain drug from the opioid family, which is used medically to relieve mild to moderate pain. The substance is dangerous in itself, as it is addictive. What was worse was something completely different. The player bought counterfeit pills that contained a completely different substance: a synthetic opioid, 50 times more potent than many other drugs.
“I kept hearing stories about kids going to parties who had never done drugs before. They decide to take one, but they end up taking the same synthetic opioid and dying. After one tablet. And I took hundreds of them over months and years. It could easily have been me,” Cauley-Stein told The Athletic.
It all started after the center signed a contract with a new team, the Golden State Warriors. The player lived in a rented house, but that day and hour, August 23, 2019, he was at the club’s disposal. But in the house were three of his friends who were shot by the criminals. One of Willie’s friends died.
“After that, it all started. I tried to cope with this and at the same time play basketball for a new team. The contract turned out bad. And then my wife got pregnant. There were too many strange things and big changes. Then I started taking painkillers, just trying to escape from reality.”
Then the basketball player’s grandmother, who was raising him, was diagnosed with bone cancer. Cauley-Stein couldn’t just watch her fade away. And I started to rely on chemistry even more. Willie slept a lot and when he woke up it was like he was in a dream. The player regrets having spent little time with his grandmother and ending up not being able to say goodbye to her. “I was a coward. Every time I talked to her, she looked different, she looked worse and I didn’t want to see her like that.” She died on December 1, 2021 and six days later, Cauley-Stein checked into rehab. The center was well aware that recognition could cost him his career. But at the same time he realized that inaction could cost him his life.
Because it was no longer possible to continue as before. The player took pills and then went to practice and had no idea what he was like from the outside. “The team realized I had no energy, no love, no personality, nothing. The drugs took everything away from me. I thought I was playing hard and doing my job, and then I heard: ‘It seems like he doesn’t like basketball.’” Cauley-Stein didn’t really understand or accept others’ reactions until he stopped using a synthetic opioid, which allowed him to “get sober.”
Willie Cauley-Stein, 2023/2024 season
Photo: Fabrizio Carabelli/Getty Images
The basketball player consulted with an agent and then enrolled in an anti-drug program with the help of the NBA. After that, he finally felt relief. Not momentary, like after taking chemotherapy, but the present, which helped him finally return to normal: “I did a lot of stupid things, but I had never felt so good. It was like my grandmother took me in her arms and hugged me tight.”
Cauley-Stein has finally lived a full, drug-free life and now feels ready for new challenges again. The player would like to return to the NBA and relive the excitement he received at the beginning of his career. I would like to wish the center good luck in this and thank him for the story he shared. I am sure that he can help many not to repeat his mistake, and those who have already made it, by following his example, will be able to correct everything.
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