Delonte West: once an NBA Rising Star, now a homeless on the streets

Delonte West was once a solid player in the National Basketball Association for a decade, but now he is a washed up drug addict fighting for his life.

West had an eleven year career in the NBA which began with him earning the 24th draft pick in the first round of the 2004 NBA draft. He started his career with the Boston Celtics, then played for the following teams: Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Dallas Mavericks. He also played professionally for the Fujian Xunxing and Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association and the Texas Legends of the NBA G League.

Throughout his career he earned millions of dollars, and was even teammates with future hall of famer Lebron James. But now he is worth a measly one thousand dollars and is searching for a home.

Recently this news surfaced when a video went viral of him begging for money outside a gas station. This spread like wildfire through the use of social media and eventually reached basketball stars Lebron James and Mark Cuban. Delonte West was located in Dallas and used to play for the Mavericks, which is why Mark Cuban took it upon himself to fix the situation and come to the aid of West.

Cuban took West into his home and offered to fully pay for West’s drug rehabilitation costs, as it seems that is the main problem that caused his fall from stardom. To make the situation worse, West also suffers from bipolar disorder. For now, Mark Cuban is keeping the status of West private for obvious reasons, but he was willing to say that West is safely checked into a drug rehabilitation facility near Dallas. The thoughts and prayers of the sports world goes out to Delonte West for a speedy recovery.