Essay on Chris Herren: Basketball Junkie to Mentor

The documentary “Unguarded” by Chris Herren is a story about drug abuse. Chris Herren, a former NBA player was addicted to heroin and painkillers. In his story he talks about how the world of drugs can change your life. Chris Herren, who had such a big income decides he would rather spend it on drugs. His life has changed insensibly and now he goes around the world educating students, soldiers, and people in rehab centers about the dangers of drug addiction. He tells again and again, wherever he can, in the hope that he can help people avoid the mistakes that nearly killed him.

It all began on November 3, 2015 during my first middle school basketball tournament. The grey brick walls of the gymnasium looking more like a prison than a school. The school’s “Lincoln Park Elementary School” sign had graffiti and missed a couple letters from the name. The court was terribly small, but we began by playing the superb team of Jam on It. We were blown out and I headed back up to my mom and dad in the parent filled stands. The game wasn’t even fun to play and we looked like third graders playing them. I looked up to my parents as sad as could be.

During his high school career, no one wanted to believed that Chris had an addiction so no one talked about it. Once Chris entered Boston College more expensive drugs were introduced to him. Boston College was were he had his first line of cocaine. He then got addicted and he would have to snort cocaine before his games and even practices. Drugs started to become a big part of his life. When he eventually got drafted to the NBA by the Denver Nuggets, heroin and pills were introduced to him. Chris would skip his warm ups because he would be waiting for his drug dealer to deliver his drugs to him so he could take them before the game. After being released from the NBA, he got offered a lot of money to play overseas. Playing overseas Chris’s addiction became much worse. Most nights Chris wouldn’t be returning home to his wife and kids. Chris’s wife was scared for their kids and her own safety. Chris then returned back to the United States and was done with playing basketball. Drugs became such a big part of Chris’s life that he couldn’t play basketball anymore. In the US, Chris’s wife said she would leave him, with their children, if Chris didn’t sober. Chris worked very hard and after two years of rehab and professional help he was sober. He has been sober since August 1st,

In the poem, “Ex – Basketball Player” by john Updike, (which is a narrative poem) illustrates the nature of life on how life is potentially is seen has a mirror to other people’s life, especially people who play sports. Life is the physical and mental experience of an individual. An in the poem the main character Flick, supply the poem with a good example of how life is potentially a mirror for other people. This poem is formally organized, even though it locks some qualities, it still haves the qualifications of a good poem. The “Ex Basket Player” is an interested poem because it has a good theme, tone and lots of figurative languages.

Jordan played basketball for Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. Ironically, he was cut from the varsity team his sophmore year. Instead of giving up after not making the team, Jordan used it to encourage himself to do better, spending hours on the basketball court. He said that whenever he was working

Some say that Chris was an idiot for going out into the Alaskan wilderness unprepared and without any knowledge of nature. “Why would anyone intending to live off the land for a few months forget boy scout rule number one: Be prepared” (krakauer, 71). This was a complaint sent in by a Alaskan hunter, and there were many more that followed that. The people writing the negative comments all believed that Chris either wanted attention, was stupid, or went out on a suicide mission. However, Chris was none of those things, he wouldn’t have been able to survive 113 days off

Chris Herren was a very good basketball player in high school. Chris smoked weed and drank until he made it into Boston College to play basketball. At Boston College, Herren was introduced to cocaine and failed multiple cocaine and marijuana drug tests. Failing these drug tests resulted in Herren being kicked off the basketball team and expelled from BC. Herren was given a second chance at Fresno. At Fresno, Chris' drug problems continued. However, he still played extremely well. Herren was drafted into the NBA by the Denver Nuggets in the second round (33rd overall). Chris was traded back home to the Boston Celtics where all his drug dealers were. Chris became addicted to pain killers like OxyContin and Vicodin. Herren was arrested

Drugs can ruin your life, family, career and future. Jude Hassan author and main subject of the novel Suburban Junky, has a lot of similarities and differences with Chris Herren, former NBA player and star of the ESPN Documentary, Unguarded, regarding their addictions to drugs. The major similarities are their rehab time, painful withdraw and the major difference with them is that Jude did it to be popular and Chris did it to deal with the stress. Both Jude and Chris served a long period of time in jail because of their problems with drugs.

Indiana loves its basketball. When driving throughout the state, basketball hoops are part of the scenery, dotting thousands of barn doors, garage doors, and driveways along the way. Hoosiers are passionate about this sport. In the book, Drive the Story of my Life, by Larry Bird with Bob Ryan, talks about his life growing up in Indiana and his storied career as a basketball player. Bird was born into a hard-working, lower class family in West Baden Springs, Indiana. Throughout his life Larry Bird was fueled by hard work and perseverance to become one of the greatest basketball players of our time.

Instead of going to high school, he began to hang out in the streets of Baltimore and had gone into various situations where he was being dealt by the police. After he had ended up in juvenile detention, since he had several children at the age of eighteen, he dropped out of high school and decides to go to Job Corps in order to complete his GED for his family. However, after recognizing the limited amount of support he received from the job, he had gone back into selling drugs in order to support his family. At this point, the result of the lack of nurture started to affect his life choices. After he decides to go back into the drug dealing scene, there was an incident where a marauder stole $438,000 worth of watches and jewels from the store which had ended with an officer being killed.

Remember that boy in high school that was the star of the basketball team? He still holds most of the records for the team. He scored more points than anyone else in the school’s history. He never studied much because he was an athlete. His basketball skills were going to take him places. But high school ended and there are no more games to be played. Where is that former all-star now? In his poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” John Updike examines the life of a former high school basketball star. Flick Webb was a local hero, and he loved basketball. He never studied much in school or learned a trade because he was a talented athlete. Now years later, the only job Flick can find is working at the local gas station. He used to be a star, but now

Ever since Kevin Garnett, a teenager who by-passed college, was drafted as the fifth overall pick in the 1995 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft, more and more high school teenagers have been making the jump straight to the pros. Since the league draft of 1995, 17 first round picks have been high school players. This means that about 7 percent of first round draft picks in the NBA have been high school teens skipping out on their college education to make the jump to the NBA (Chylinski).

Jude Hassan and Chris Herren were both in different situations with a drug addiction. Both of them had their addiction take them to a whole new different level in their lives. Jude Hassan, in Suburban Junky, was just a sophomore in high school when exposed to marijuana. While Chris Herren was just a freshman star basketball player at Boston College, he was exposed to cocaine. Both of their “small” addictions turned their whole lives up-side down when they were introduced to heroin. Jude and Chris didn’t really admit to their addiction until it was almost over.

On January 20, 2015, inmates at a correctional facility in Arizona murdered a 23-year-old man by the name of Neil Early in a drug-related crime. Early was an addict who continued to buy his drugs of choice in prison, but he could not pay for them; the debt he amassed with the inmate dealers in the prison would cause his brutal death. Lindsee Smith (personal communication, November 4, 2017), a professional drug and alcohol abuse and criminal counselor who formally worked at this facility, claims that this type of situation happens much more often in the United States than commonly thought. Neil Early remains a victim of the failing War on Drugs, the collection of government policies implementing stricter executive action and harsher punishments

One Friday night, Dan decided to go out with his friends to a party. He was nice, and hardworking guy, but that night he made the decision that changed his life. He decided to inhale cocaine because all his friends were pressuring him to do it. After that day, he felt the need of inhaling more drugs. He would look around the house and inhale hairspray, nail polish remover, and anything calms him down. Months passed, he was addicted to inhaling drugs. One day, he felt nauseous and fainted. His worried family rushed him to the hospital. His blood flow was reduced, and if he was not rushed to the hospital, he would have been dead. Many people believe that drugs are for fun and will make them feel better. Nonetheless, drug addiction is pernicious because of death and family problems.