Willie Cauley-Stein dodged demise, recovered after which got here dwelling — to Kentucky — to let love heal him

Wait, what 12 months is it? It may well’t be 2024. That’s simply not attainable.

Look, see, that’s Willie Cauley-Stein on the market in a rowdy Rupp Area, in a packed Freedom Corridor, within the semifinals of one other nationwide event, gliding alongside like a 7-foot-tall unicorn and grinning like probably the most carefree particular person on earth. That’s him hanging out the window of a automotive and slapping palms with strangers who noticed him and screamed, “Willie, we love you!” as he rolled via Kentucky’s campus.

Are we certain this isn’t 2015?

“That couple weeks was only a film,” stated Cauley-Stein, time traveler. “It was one of the best resolution ever. I want I might’ve recorded actually every part, on daily basis, so I might return and watch it time and again. It was that particular.”

For many, The Basketball Match is an annual summer season sideshow, a bunch of school alumni groups competing for a $1 million prize whereas creating tv stock within the canine days of the sports activities calendar. However for Cauley-Stein, who went from All-American at Kentucky to No. 6 choose within the 2015 NBA Draft to All-Rookie staff to full-time starter to all of a sudden and mysteriously out of the league in what ought to’ve been his prime, an invite to characterize his alma mater once more was life-affirming. When former teammates James Younger, the Harrison twins and Tyler Ulis joined him on a staff whose identify was a nod to their outdated coach, John Calipari, La Familia took off on a nostalgia-fueled run just like the DeLorean in “Again to the Future.”

It transported Cauley-Stein again to a spot the place he felt cherished and a time when he had hope earlier than he misplaced the sport — and himself — on the backside of a capsule bottle.

“I might simply be lifeless,” Cauley-Stein stated. “In order that pleasure you noticed from me within the TBT is totally different as a result of I do know the bullet I actually dodged. I requested for assist earlier than it was too late, and I bought higher, however the basketball factor has been so much tougher to get again. So after they requested me to do that, it was too good. It simply replicated these outdated instances, simply precisely the way it was. Growth, I bought showered with all this love that I wanted, completely wanted and performed one of the best basketball I’ve performed in years. That s— was dope.”

He performed in 422 NBA video games and began 255 of them, however Cauley-Stein’s final look in that league was March 2, 2022. It was an unceremonious ending, one measly minute of motion to conclude a 10-day contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. A final gasp after he stepped away from the Dallas Mavericks in late November 2021 — the staff cited “private causes” — after which it waived him in January. What virtually no one knew on the time, and what he by no means beforehand has mentioned publicly, is that Cauley-Stein was in the course of a 65-day keep at an inpatient rehabilitation heart for substance abuse.

He thoughtthe substance he had been abusing was bootleg Percocet, a mixture of oxycodone and acetaminophen, which is unhealthy sufficient. He had been consuming these by the handful to numb his ache, he instructed the rehab heart upon check-in, so it might count on to see that on his drug take a look at. But it surely didn’t.

It seems, he had been shopping for faux drugs, laced with fentanyl. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s web site describes fentanyl as 100 instances stronger than morphine and 50 instances stronger than heroin. “One capsule can kill” is the DEA’s slogan, and the company estimates about 70 p.c of the 80 million fentanyl-laced faux drugs it seized in 2023 contained a doubtlessly deadly dose.

“I didn’t know till I turned myself in. I checked out my spouse and stated, ‘Oh, my God’ as a result of I hear tales on a regular basis about children going to a celebration, by no means taking a drug earlier than, deciding to pop a Percocet, and it finally ends up being fentanyl, and so they die. From one capsule,” Cauley-Stein stated. “Dude, I used to be taking lots of of them, for months and years. It might’ve so simply been me.”

One of many associates Cauley-Stein made in rehab was solely out for 5 days, he stated, after a 75-day keep, earlier than he overdosed and died.

“You possibly can form of inform the way in which he was strolling round that he wasn’t prepared to depart but, that he nonetheless wished to do it,” Cauley-Stein stated. “Not me. There’s nothing you may ever inform me to get me to do this once more. I would like no a part of it.”

That’s as a result of the medication took away rather more than his ache. They robbed Cauley-Stein of his mild. He was a fan favourite at Kentucky and early in his professional profession with the Sacramento Kings due to a playful character and curious thoughts. He was endlessly quotable, and subsequently additionally a media darling as he waxed philosophical one minute and rattled off foolish asides the subsequent. He as soon as bleached his hair blond, prompting Calipari to match him to Dennis Rodman. He painted daring and colourful artworks, dabbled in vogue design and took piano classes one offseason.

From 2015 to 2019, “life was good,” Cauley-Stein stated. “It was all love.”

His fourth season within the NBA was his greatest. He began 81 video games and averaged 11.9 factors, 8.4 boards, 2.4 assists and 1.2 steals. He thought an enormous contract was coming. As a substitute, the Kings moved on, and he signed for barely above the league minimal with the Golden State Warriors. That’s why he wasn’t dwelling Aug. 23, 2019, when three of his associates had been shot — and one killed — whereas they slept on the dwelling Cauley-Stein leased in Sacramento.

“That form of began a spiral of psychological well being,” he stated. “Attempting to cope with that and hoop on the similar time — for a brand new staff, on a nasty deal, after which my spouse bought pregnant — it was simply too many bizarre issues and large modifications, and I bought on the ache drugs making an attempt to simply run away from actuality.”

Then the grandmother who raised him, Norma Jean Stein, was recognized with bone most cancers. It ravaged her, and Cauley-Stein couldn’t bear to observe her wither away. So he retreated additional right into a pharmaceutical fog.

“I used to be doing so many drugs, I used to be asleep on a regular basis,” he stated, “or once I was awake, I wasn’t actually there. I didn’t deal with that the fitting manner. I missed actually attending to say goodbye to my grandmother. I might’ve been round her extra, FaceTimed her extra, achieved so many issues simply to be along with her on the finish, and I did the precise reverse. I used to be a coward, man. Each time I talked to her, she seemed totally different, seemed worse, and I didn’t need to see her like that.”

She died Dec. 1, 2021. Cauley-Stein checked into rehab six days later.

By that time, the drugs hardly affected him anymore, a minimum of not in any manner he might really feel. He took them simply to operate and to stave off what he assumed can be brutal dope illness if he ever stopped. Extremely, he stated he took the drugs to get via basketball apply, by some means nonetheless passing as a practical NBA participant regardless of working in a perpetual haze.

“The staff might inform I had no power, no love, no character, no nothing. The medication took every part from me,” he stated. “I feel I’m enjoying laborious, balling, doing my factor, after which I hear, ‘He doesn’t appear to be he loves basketball.’ It didn’t happen to me till I went and bought sober and did the work that I noticed: ‘Oh, that is what individuals noticed.’ The spark that I’ve once I discuss, I didn’t have that. I couldn’t look individuals of their eyes as a result of I felt like they may see my soul and see I wasn’t the identical Willie.”

He knew that admitting his dependancy may cost him his profession within the NBA, however he additionally knew that not getting assist may cost him his life.

“I might see the place I used to be heading,” he stated. “It was like I had a thousand kilos on my again. I didn’t like who I noticed within the mirror, and I used to be going to need to carry on doing medication to play. I instructed my agent, ‘I gotta get assist.’ As quickly as I referred to as and put myself into the NBA drug program and instructed them every part, it was immediate aid. I bought swept with this sense — I’ve achieved quite a lot of s—, however I’ve by no means had a sense so good — like my grandmother was scooping me up and giving me the largest hug.”

Your TBT 2024 DPOY:

Willie Cauley-Stein pic.twitter.com/m4jtiTslET

— TBT (@thetournament) August 4, 2024

That feeling gave option to some momentary embarrassment when he entered rehab, as a result of it was apparent individuals there knew who he was. Step considered one of his restoration, because it turned out, was stripping away the ego of being a millionaire skilled basketball participant. He instructed the employees and his fellow sufferers to deal with him precisely just like the others.

“I’m considered one of y’all. We’re in right here for a similar motive,” Cauley-Stein stated he instructed them. “I don’t need some particular remedy. I wished to do the work. So it was quite a lot of soul-searching and listening to individuals’s tales and sharing my story. If you hear your individual story out loud, it’s like, ‘Rattling, that’s really loopy.’ However via that course of, via remedy and quite a lot of work on me, I actually discovered myself. I discovered goal in life once more.”

He found a love of golf via each day chipping and placing competitions with a fellow affected person on the ability’s small placing inexperienced. He nonetheless takes classes and performs each probability he will get, which is hardly a shock. He famously performed nearly each sport out there in highschool, the place he first fell for his now spouse, Kelsey. They’ve a 4-year-old daughter, Kendrixx, and 1-year-old twin boys, Jaxx and Jett.

“I needed to get proper for them,” Cauley-Stein stated. “It’s humorous, I’m solely 30, however my children don’t actually know me as this basketball star. What’s loopy, although, is I’m doing one of the best I’ve achieved in like 10 years. That is one of the best I’ve felt, in all probability, since I left Kentucky. And there’s nonetheless quite a lot of recreation on this physique. I’m rested, I’m recent. I’m prepared.”

Cauley-Stein performed 13 video games with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Houston Rockets’ G League affiliate, in 2022-23. He performed 20 video games for an Italian membership — and broke the Europe Cup single-game report with 20 rebounds — final season. Nonetheless hoping an NBA staff will give him yet another shot, Cauley-Stein deliberate to play at NBA Summer time League this 12 months, however then an outdated Kentucky teammate referred to as. Twany Beckham, La Familia’s normal supervisor, wanted a star attraction to get individuals enthusiastic about TBT in Lexington.

NBA Summer time League is a much bigger deal, however Beckham supplied a greater deal.

“I used to be capable of promote him on, ‘Bro, you haven’t been again in a very long time,’ and figuring out what sort of fan favourite he was and what this fan base’s love can do for someone, I instructed him, ‘Willie, when you come again, you’re going to get one thing you’ve been lacking,’” Beckham stated. “I simply painted an image for him. Coach Cal used to evangelise that to us on a regular basis: Actually embrace this, as a result of as soon as you permit right here, it’ll by no means be the identical. You’ll by no means have love like this once more or be on a staff like this once more. And that’s what I pitched all our guys on: You really cancome again and really feel that love once more.”

Cauley-Stein actually did. The 2015 nationwide defensive participant of the 12 months earned the TBT defensive MVP. He blocked seven pictures in La Familia’s second recreation. He had 20 factors, 9 boards and 4 steals and three made 3-pointers — an sudden addition to his recreation for the reason that school days — in opposition to rival Louisville’s staff within the quarterfinals. That recreation delivered the biggest crowd in TBT historical past and allowed Cauley-Stein to trash-talk Cardinals followers all week on the golf course whereas additionally basking within the adoration of a grateful Large Blue Nation.

Identical to the nice outdated days.

“It was actually a blast from the previous,” Cauley-Stein stated, proper right down to one of many Harrison twins’ hitting the decisive shot to get rid of Louisville. “Poetic. Can’t get written any higher than that. That was one of many funnest, most buzzing instances I can keep in mind, and it was for a bunch of washed-up dudes enjoying in July. I might simply really feel it in my physique, the hairs beginning to get up. ‘Oh, my God, that is what it’s about.’ Being sober these final two years has been so nice since you study to fall in love with these pure dopamine spikes once more.”

The straightforward pleasures, he calls them. Just like the style of nice meals or the refreshment of a drug-free night time’s relaxation. Like going again to his alma mater virtually a decade later and followers asking about his grandparents — or asserting that their household pet is called after him. It’s a bit of bizarre, certain, “However I’m in individuals’s households, man, and I adore it.”

Cauley-Stein continues to be eager for yet another shot within the NBA or a minimum of a pleasant abroad contract, and he believes his TBT efficiency will open some new doorways. He wonders if lastly being open about how he bought derailed may additionally assist as a result of the thriller surrounding his disappearance from the league certainly didn’t.

“He’s a superb one who deserves good in his life and he simply wants one other alternative,” stated Nate Sestina, who idolized Cauley-Stein in highschool after which turned associates and TBT teammates with him this summer season.

Throughout a spherical of golf, Cauley-Stein instructed Sestina about his dependancy.

“Willie to me had all the time been this unicorn, however him telling me that simply confirmed me he’s an actual particular person with actual traumas like everyone else,” Sestina stated. “I instructed him, ‘You must share your story as a result of so many individuals can relate. So many individuals who love you’re going via the identical factor.’ And I made certain he is aware of: In the event you don’t make it again to the NBA, that’s not failure. The actual fact you’re right here to inform this story is what needs to be celebrated.”

If he’s not on someone else’s roster subsequent summer season, he’s already dedicated to enjoying within the TBT once more. He wants 38 extra credit score hours to graduate from Kentucky and has met along with his outdated educational adviser about getting that achieved. He has considered shifting his household to Lexington.

“This jogged my memory that Kentucky adopted me,” Cauley-Stein stated. “I used to be only a child once I bought there, and I actually became a younger man there. And all these individuals remembering me and nonetheless loving me in spite of everything this time, it’s like, wow, this actually is dwelling.”

(High photograph: Tommy Quarles / Courtesy of UK Athletics)