Arts & Entertainment

Former NBA Star Chris Herren Shoots for Complete Honesty About Addiction in Memoir

Former NBA star and Portsmouth resident Chris Herren and Bill Reynolds spoke about their new collaboration, "Basketball Junkie: A Memoir" at Island Books in Middletown Thursday night.

Providence Journal sports columnist Bill Reynolds first met Chris Herren 20 years ago when he shadowed the Durfee High School All-State junior and his fellow basketball teammates as source material for his book, "Fall River Dreams."

Sitting in in Middletown Thursday night, before a captivated and moved crowd of about 100, Herren sat just a few feet from Reynolds, occasionally busting his chops with a devilish grin, the way brothers often trade stories, jabs and histories. Herren at one point reached for the right words to define the relationship he and Reynolds had developed over the years. A one-word label never quite did the trick: "a father figure," "like an uncle," "a brother," "a good friend."

Since their collaboration on Herren's memoir "Basketball Junkie: A Memoir," released May 10, "co-author" has become another word for him.

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Mostly for Herren, he’s just “Reynolds,” the writer who cared about him before he was famous, followed his career closely from college ball to the NBA with the Nuggets and Celtics, kept in touch and who in recent years sat across from him in coffee shops for hours at a time over several months, listening. 

More than just a book about Herren's highly publicized rise to sports stardom, his fall to drug and alcohol addiction and his subsequent recovery, the memoir confessional itself became the strongest and most powerful healing milestone in his recovery process, he said.

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Herren didn’t mince words Thursday night when he described how sitting across from Reynolds enabled him to open up about his addictions like he never had before that time.

Most importantly, it helped him leave the “shame” that haunted him behind, he said.

“I walked around with a lot of guilt and a lot of shame for many, many years,” recalled Herren, whose path to addiction began as a young adult around the time that basketball wasn’t fun for him anymore, when partying after the big games with buddies became an escape from the pressures, and when the drugs and alcohol that provided those escapes later morphed into daily forms of self-medication to function and feed the addiction sickness that had grabbed hold of him.

“I had been going to meetings for a while out on the Cape, and I always was quiet. I just listened to others sharing. Finally one night, a woman said to me, ‘You know, if we don’t hear from you, we can’t help you,” Herren said.

Reynolds knew that an important story needed to be told, about that rare neighborhood kid from New England who, after becoming a local legend, had later made his way to the legendary Celtics and stood out in his professional NBA career to the point where he was interviewed for top network news programs and sports magazines. That was before his widely publicized arrest for drunk driving and drug problems, in particular, heroin.

When he sat down with Reynolds to write the memoir, Herren said that he began opening up about things he had never talked about.

“After I was able to talk about it, I was able to get over it,” Herren said.

Married with three children, he also made the decision to hold nothing back.

“Although it was a tough decision, I didn’t want to leave things out,” Herren said, crediting his wife for being a great source of love and strength for his family during his recovery, as she still is today. “Back then, what hurt most was that I was hurting my wife and family and, when I was going through the recovery process, my kids were going through that process with me.”

He later added, “As long as I’m sober, my kids will be okay. But no, my children will not read this book.”

Today he is “proud to be in recovery” and said he’s let go of the shame of his addiction, in part from the healing that came from opening up so much for the book and also from the tremendous support he’s received from Aquidneck Island neighbors and friends, many that he’s met through recovery and the local support systems.

As for basketball, that remains a “love-hate” relationship for him, he said.

His love for the game and the excitement he sees it bring kids remains shadowed by his personal history with the game.

“I would never want to go back to that life or lifestyle,” Herren responded, when asked by an audience member if he’d like to play basketball again or who he might like to go up against again. “But it’s brought me here. Today I spoke to 1,200 kids at Dartmouth High School and when they hear NBA or the Celtics, suddenly they listen. It gives you that ‘in’ where they might not otherwise hear what you have to say about these dangers of drugs or alcohol or other things.”

In recent years, through Hoop Dreams and speaking engagements, Herren has met many young basketball players either personally struggling with substance abuse, or living with addicted family members.

He’s given out his personal number to many and has received that occasional 2 a.m. phone call from someone going through a hard time.

“From where I am today, I think that’s the beauty of me making it to the NBA. I can do that,” Herren said. “I try to also use the courts as a way to reach kids who otherwise might not be reached."

Reynolds recalled how when Herren was 16 years old, the two of them shot hoops to get to know each other better and break the ice while Reynolds was crafting “Fall River Dreams.”

Reynolds likes to tell the story of how way back then he had defeated Herren twice at HORSE. Herren was All-State three years in a row back in high school.

“Reynolds, how many people do you tell that story?” Herren tossed out, prompting a big laugh from the Island Books crowd Thursday night. “Everywhere I go, people ask me, ‘Did he really beat you at HORSE?’”

“Oh, yeah, I tell everyone,” Reynolds responded.

Herren turned to the audience, “That’s why we called him ‘Shooter.’ You know we called you that, right?”

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