NBA All-Substance Abuse Team

[Mj23thegoat]

http://www.probasketballnews.com/caputo_1019.html

Chris Washburn (center, North Carolina State)


Washburn was banned from the NBA for life in June 1989 after he flunked three drug tests in as many years. Washburn was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the third overall pick of the '86 draft. He looked like the next Karl Malone, at least in physical appearance, but his self discipline and work ethic were not up to par.


Roy Tarpley (forward/center, Michigan)



A star at the University of Michigan, Tarpley was selected seventh in the same ’86 NBA draft that brought Washburn and William Bedford to pro ball. Though he lacked self-control , Tarpley averaged double-doubles in the league for a number of years. But just five games into the 1991-92 season the 6-foot-11 Tarpley was banned from the league for cocaine abuse. Because it was his third violation, he was never allowed to reutrn to the NBA. The 1988 Sixth Man of the Year would go on to play in Greece and Cyprus, as well as in the USBL with the Miami Tropics. The Tropics were formed by Coach John Lucas to give jobs to basketball players who were reovering from substance abuse.



Lloyd Daniels (forward, no college)



Lloyd "Sweet Pea" Daniels, a 6-7 point forward, never played in college, nor was he ever drafted by an NBA team. The anti-Lebron James, Daniels was the best high school player in the country who never went to school. His drug problems followed him through several different high schools and colleges. He did manage to play in five NBA seasons for six teams. He played for the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, New Jersey Nets, and Toronto Raptors.



In May of ’89 Daniels was shot three times in the chest and survived. He still has a bullet lodged in his right shoulder. He didn’t play his first NBA game until 1993.



For his career, Daniels played in 200 gamesand scored a total of 1,411 points. Prior to breaking in to the league, he played in the GBA, the CBA, the USBL and also in Europe. Daniels is considered a New York City playground legend. With Magic Johnson-like potential, his problems with drugs overshadowed a tremendous talent that could have been but never was. In October of 2005, Daniels tried to revive his career by trying out with the Strong Island Sound of the American Basketball Association. Today, Daniels is said to be clean and working within the youth basketball community.



Richard Dumas (guard, Oklahoma State)



Aside from displaying tons of playing poetential,

Dumas’ NBA career was plagued by substance

abuse. Dumas, a 6-8 small forward from

Oklahoma State, was selected with the 46th

pick of the 1991 draft by the Phoenix Suns, but

was suspended for what would have been his

first season for violation of league drug policies.



Dumas’ first year in the bigs began 19 games

into the Suns' stellar 1992-93 season. The late

bloomer ended up averaging 15.8 points and

4.6 rebounds per game as he helped the club

win a league-best 62 games, and make an

apperance in the Finals.



However, Dumas was banned for the entire

following season for further drug violations.

He returned in 1995 to the Suns, but his

numbers were way down and he appeared

in just 15 games. Under the influence of

former troubled player and then-Philadelphia

76ers head coach John Lucas, Dumas concluded his brief NBA career with a season with the Sixers, averaging 6.2 points in 39 games. He continued to pursue a professional career overseas, as well as for the Westchester Wildfire of the USBL. Dumas retired from basketball in 2003.



Chris Herren (guard, Fresno State )



Herren was scooped up by the Denver Nuggets in the second round (33rd overall) of the 1999 Draft. A 6-2 guard, Herren played for the Nuggets and the Boston Celtics during his very brief NBA career.



He played collegiately at Fresno State University under legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian. Once the subject of the high school basketball book “Fall River Dreams,” and a Sports Illustrated magazine cover boy, Herren entered a rehab for abusing cocaine and other drugs during his junior season at Fresno. Herren’s substance abuse followed him across the country -- from high school to an injury-riddled season at Boston College, to Fresno State and beyond. Herren also reportedly once told legendary NYC high school coach Jack Curran that former Arkansas point guard Kareem Reid wasn’t passing him the ball because Herran is white.



Herren spent his rookie season with the Nuggets and played in 45 games, averaging a notch above three points. John Lucas had high hopes for Herren, then clean for two years. He scored a NBA career high 18 points, with seven assists, against Dallas.



The next year he returned to the city where he grew up to be a backup point guard for Rick Pitino’s Celtics. In 25 games, Herren averaged almost identical numbers and started seven games -- including one agiainst the Sixers where he guarded Allen Iverson for much of the game. After injuries killed his availability, the Celtics placed Herren on waivers.



In December 2004, Herren rammed his car into a Dunkin' Donuts in Portsmouth, R.I., and was found unconscious leaning over his steering wheel. He was arrested and charged for possession of heroin and driving under the influence of drugs with a revoked driver's license.



Micheal Ray Richardson (guard, Montana)


Michael Ray Richardson’s career is one of the more “turnaround” stories of all the sad substance abuse cases. The fourth pick in the 1978 draft, Richardson was an offensive threat and flashy scorer who spent parts of eight seasons in the NBA with the Knicks, Warriors and Nets. His problems with cocaine and other substances landed him out of the league by the mid-80’s and he would later personally banish himself to Europe for a 14-year run in which he said he kept himself away from bad influences.



Richardson often criticized the league for never punishing longtime Warriors star Chris Mullin for the alcohol habit he carried through his active playing career before seaking treatment in 1987.



In 2000, TNT television ran a documentary , entitled "Whatever Happened to Micheal Ray?" and in 2004 he was named the coach of the Albany Patroons of the CBA where, as a player, he won the ’87-88 CBA championship. Richardson once approached NBA commissioner David Stern at a game and thanked him for saving his life.



Chris Anderson (forward, Blinn Community College)


Anderson has the honor of being the man whom the Denver Post once called, “The most disgraced player since the drug-induced haze of the '80s.”



Initially Anderson, a Texas native, dropped out of the University of Houston and went undrafted out of Blinn Community College, before spending time in the

D-League, the old IBA and IBL, and the little-known SWBL with a club called the Sugarland Sharks. Anderson was called up to the Nuggets in 2001 and proved himself to be an able body who could play a number of positions. That continued on in New Orleans with the Hornets until he was dismissed from the NBA in January 2006 for testing positive for a controlled substance. Players can be dismissed from the league for sterioid use and the “drugs of abuse,” including, methamphetamine, cocaine, LSD, and opiates -- including heroin, codeine and morphine, and PCP.



Shawn Kemp (forward, Trinity Valley Community College)


One of the sadest stories concerning substance abuse in the NBA involves Kemp. As a star forward for the Seattle SuperSonics, he led his team to the Finals in 1996, where it lost to the Chicago Bulls. Coming out of Trinity Valley Community College -- where he transferred after pawning a teammate's jewlery at the University of Kentucky and was dissmissed from the team -- the 19-year-old Kemp became an instant superstar.



A five-time NBA All Star, Kemp began fading into oblivion after being traded to the Portland Trail Blazers in 2000. Kemp's play quickly began to decline and his first season in Portland ended with him entering a rehab program. Some reported that Kemp was so dependent on marijuanaat the time, that players began finging joints in the locker room. It is also rumored that his teammates thought that the 6-10 Kemp would die on the court. After two rough years in Portland, Kemp was shipped to the Orlando Magic, before he left the league in 2003.



William Bedford (center, Memphis)


Bedford was a 7-footer who was selected by Phoenix with the No. 6 overall pick of the infamous '86 draft. After entering the league with the Suns and later being shipped to the championshop Pistons, Bedford’s numbers, which were mediocore to begin with, steadily declined throughout his six seasons in the league. In 1988 he entered a program for chemical dependency when he was just 24-years old. His NBA career ended after a cup-of-coffee with the Spurs in the 1992-93 season.



Lewis Lloyd (guard/forward, Drake)


Lewis Lloyd, a.k.a “Black Magic” averaged 28 points per game at Drake and spent six strong seasons in the NBA for violating the league’s substance abuse stance. The Philadelphia-native was a two-time All-Star who, along with teammate Mitchell Wiggins, was banned from the league in 1987. Outside the league, Lloyd’s career was highlighted by a 30-plus season with the Philadelphia Aces of the USBL. According to SLAM magazine, Lloyd is one of the greatest playground ballers of all time and can still be found roaming the courts of West Philly.



Mithcell Wiggins (guard, Florida State)


The 23 overall pick in the ’83 draft to the Pacers, Wiggins, who played for the Bulls, Rockets and Sixers in a six seasons, was banned from the league in January of 1987.



The following season he would be the first player to compete in a CBA-NBA joint program that allowed those dismissed from the league for substance abuse to play in the CBA after having completed a rehab program. Unfortunatly, after suiting up for both the Mississipi Jets and the Quad City Thunder , Wiggins was banned from the CBA forever in Decemeber of ’87. Ironically, Wiggins returned to the NBA in 1990 and posted a career-best 15.5 points per game with the Rockets.



Stanley Roberts (center, LSU)


A 7-footer who was picked by the Orlando Magic in the first round of the '91 draft, Roberts had a servicable NBA career cut short by drug violations. In eight seasons with fives teams, Roberts' best year came during his second season

-- when he averaged more than 11points in 77 games. Roberts was banned for allegedly using an amphetamine-based drug in 1999. He denied using the substance.



In 2004, after spending time with the Harlem Globetrotters, Toronto Raptors general manager Glen Grunwald declined to sign the then 33-year old Roberts, of whom Grunwald said, “Needs to get into better shape.”

[clsmooth217]

no isiah rider on the list.that list is crap

[Intruder]

Richard Dumas was a star on the rise too. Too bad he couldnt saty off that stuff. Even Barkley (his teammate at the time) was giving him mad props and you know it takes a lot to get big mouth Charles to give someone props