Editor’s be aware: This story addresses psychological well being and dependancy and could also be troublesome to learn or emotionally upsetting.
AVALON, N.J. — Phil Martelli eases again into his chair and sighs. He has been scrolling by way of his cellphone, studying textual content messages that span a two-year window. It’s a one-sided dialog, all black and white from the sender, no blue responses from him.
It’s a lovely sunny day in New Jersey and only a week in the past, Martelli and his spouse, Judy, loved an idyllic Jersey Shore weekend, their residence filled with kids and grandchildren as the children’ exuberance ricocheted off the ceilings.
However on this August afternoon it’s pin-drop quiet in the home. The youngsters have left and the temper is heavy as Martelli pages by way of the texts from an individual he at all times thought of a part of his household. The messages all comply with the identical sample: a determined request for assist, a urgent want for cash – to pay the dope man, the bartender, or, to get off the streets and discover security.
Martelli used to reply, even ship the cash as requested. However then counselors suggested him he wasn’t serving to; that, the truth is, he was hurting. Then the messages stopped, the final one coming greater than a 12 months in the past now – in April of final 12 months. “I’m actually unhappy” is the way it ends.
Martelli is unhappy, too. Crushed with guilt, overwhelmed with helplessness, devastated that there’s nothing he can do. The coach recognized for his fast wit stops and begins throughout an hour-long dialog, struggling to search out the best phrases the place there are actually no phrases in any respect.
Twenty years in the past, Martelli and his Saint Joseph’s Hawks captivated faculty basketball, the workforce from a tiny Catholic faculty rolling to a 27-0 begin and ultimately into the 2004 Elite Eight. Two gamers from that workforce have been drafted within the first spherical, a feat practically as inconceivable because the Hawks’ run.
One, Jameer Nelson, performed 14 years within the NBA and is now the assistant common supervisor with the Philadelphia 76ers G League workforce, the Delaware Blue Coats.
The opposite, Delonte West, has been, the final anybody’s heard, dwelling outdoors of a 7-11 in Alexandria, Va. He despatched the texts to Martelli.
A number of individuals, folks with means and contacts — Martelli, Nelson, Mark Cuban, Jayson Williams – have tried to assist West. Save him, actually. They’re basketball folks, in spite of everything. Within the enterprise of getting outcomes. It’s what coaches and athletes stay for, why workforce house owners purchase into the attract of sports activities — the thirst for a win, the ecstasy of victory.
Besides this one they will’t effort into success, or purchase their option to an answer. As a substitute, they’ve discovered what too many different households already know: that the vicious storm of psychological sickness, drug dependancy and desperation stewing inside West cares little about work ethic or cash; it swallows all the pieces and everybody complete.
“Everybody has somebody going by way of one thing comparable and people who have the means to assist, or create a barrier to guard their family members, that’s what you do,” Cuban says. “I assumed I may assist. And I attempted. I actually did. All of us did. It’s simply, you simply really feel hopeless.”
Martelli rewinds the story, going all the way in which again to a tennis courtroom on the School of New Jersey on a summer time day in 2000. Rob Kennedy ran a Hoop Group occasion there, and West and a group of teammates from suburban Maryland have been working in a recreation. Most coaches went to see Eddie Basden, who ultimately would land with a scholarship to Charlotte. Martelli, admittedly, was largely interested in Basden, too.
Then he watched a child he’d by no means heard of get clipped from beneath whereas driving to the basket. Your entire crowd groaned as he banged back-first into the transportable stanchion. The child jumped up, hustled down the courtroom and began taking part in protection.
Martelli informed his workers, “Neglect Basden. I would like Delonte West.’’ It wasn’t an excessive amount of of an ask. West solely had a handful of mid-major suitors – Siena, Manhattan, Towson. He as soon as half-jokingly informed a reporter that he opted for the Hawks as a result of they have been on TV probably the most.
Throughout his three years on campus, West performed with the identical single-minded devotion that he confirmed on that tennis courtroom. He didn’t merely dedicate himself to basketball; he devoured it.
Following West’s freshman season, assistant coach Matt Brady instructed he tinker along with his jumper. Many nights that summer time, Martelli would see the lights on within the fitness center as he rode down Metropolis Avenue. West, he knew, was working. As a freshman, West linked 11.8 % from the 3-point line. By the top of his junior season, West shot 49 % from the ground and 41 from the arc.
It’s not that he was all basketball. What began out as doodling within the margins of highschool assignments blossomed right into a ardour. West majored in artwork at St. Joe’s, and if he wasn’t within the fitness center, he was within the artwork room. Martelli nonetheless has a few of West’s paintings again residence in Philly.
West additionally was savvy. He as soon as modified out the radio in a teammate’s automotive for a CD participant, providing to trick it out so lights flashed each time the bass bumped.
He could possibly be humorous, glib, introspective and deep all in the middle of one dialog. His teammate Brian Jesiolowski used to drive West round within the summers, the 2 incomes money at space basketball camps. One night time they handed a man strolling who was Philly well-known – a long-haired, berobed preacher who traversed town barefoot. Jesiolowski talked about him to West as they drove previous, and West insisted they return and provide him a journey. “I imply, he’s barefoot, he in all probability needs a carry,” West reasoned.
The preacher naturally was reluctant at first, however they reassured him that they have been faculty college students headed again to campus, nothing sinister. The preacher hopped within the backseat and as Jesiolowski drove, West earnestly requested how he may have the ability to obtain his goals — to play professional ball, assist his household. He defined that he prayed commonly, went to church, however wished to know what else he may do. The preacher assured him that he was on the best path. The dialogue, critical and intense, continued till they pulled as much as Larry’s Steaks throughout from campus. Simply earlier than the preacher exited the again seat, West mentioned, “Man, I’ve another query for you. What the f— occurred to the dinosaurs?”
As he retells the story, Jesiolowski bursts out laughing. “I practically crashed the automotive,” he says. “However he didn’t even crack a smile.” The 2 commemorated the night time by dashing into a close-by comfort retailer to purchase disposable cameras, every posing with the preacher. Jesiolowski nonetheless has it someplace.
“He was completely hilarious,” Jesiolowski says. “However he additionally, when you cracked the shell, he was actually this very form, profound particular person. Actually, I feel he was misunderstood. You see him, you assume he’s simply this nice basketball participant from a tricky neighborhood who made himself nice. That’s all true, however he was a lot greater than that.”
Upon studying that he had been chosen for the duvet of Sports activities Illustrated, Nelson had a query: Might West seem alongside him? Nelson didn’t love the highlight, and spent the majority of the Hawks’ 2003-04 season ensuring all of his teammates have been showcased.
It additionally was an acknowledgement that, with out West, Nelson would have been particular, however collectively, they have been magical. The 12 months earlier than The 12 months (West’s sophomore season), the Hawks completed 23-7, and had West not suffered a late-season stress fracture, who is aware of what may need occurred? Because it was, they misplaced to Auburn by two in time beyond regulation within the first spherical of the NCAA Event. That 12 months Nelson averaged 19.7 factors, 5.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists to West’s 17.3, 4.3 and three.2. A 12 months later, as they rolled to close perfection, they have been an extension of one another – Nelson the savvy, fast level guard and West his fearless, aggressive backcourt mate.
West opted to show professional following his junior 12 months — he memorably spent the day he declared using round campus in a golf cart, tossing water balloons at unsuspecting classmates — and wound up a first-round decide, chosen by Boston 4 spots after Nelson went to Orlando through a commerce from Denver.
“Delonte made himself into a professional due to his work ethic, his dedication and his will to be good,” Nelson says. “He had a tremendous basketball IQ. He was unorthodox as a result of he was left-handed, however actually, he simply had this grit in him. That’s what made the distinction.”
Martelli remembers how West labored all hours and refused to lose at drills – even when it meant he needed to bend the principles slightly bit. However he can also’t assist however rethink what he then wrote off as a fierce dedication to basketball as one thing extra, possibly an obsession greater than a ardour.
All of them do that now, rethink moments that they chalked as much as West’s extremely competitiveness and burning need to play. There was the sport in opposition to Xavier within the Atlantic 10 match. Simply days earlier than, Saint Joseph’s had reached the top, the tiny faculty sitting atop the AP rankings. However that recreation, it was just like the Hawks’ sneakers have been caught in quicksand. The Musketeers led by 22 at halftime and received by 20. With a couple of minutes left, Martelli waved the white flag. He took Nelson out of the sport, and some minutes later, yanked West.
Besides West wouldn’t sit down. He begged the coach for just a few extra seconds, insisting he may win the sport by himself. When Martelli informed him no, that they needed to give up this one, West bowed as much as his head coach. Nelson came to visit and defused the state of affairs.
Or when athletic coach Invoice Lukasiewicz intervened throughout follow to are likely to a minimize on West’s hand. Itching to get again to motion, West fussed whereas Lukasiewicz put an ointment to cease the bleeding, rising so impatient that he slapped Lukasiewicz’s hand away. When Lukasiewicz continued to use the ointment, Martelli and his former gamers say West charged at him.
Or the time that Jesiolowski remembers, when West threatened to mess up his teammate who had been defending him arduous in follow, or misplaced his cool once they went out at night time. “He’d simply type of snap over one thing not that critical,” Jesiolowski says. “I simply at all times thought, he’s a tricky child from a tricky neighborhood.”
West went public with his diagnosis as bipolar in 2008, solely 4 years after he left Philly, and everybody who has a narrative now questions in the event that they missed a clue, if they need to have recognized, may have helped or intervened.
The guilt eats in any respect of them, figuring out what they now do about bipolar dysfunction; the way it can worsen over time if left untreated, or result in dangerous coping mechanisms like substance abuse. West is so younger, nonetheless solely 40 years previous. What if he had been guided towards remedy, and was open sufficient then to simply accept it? “You wish to go backward,” Nelson says. “However you may’t. It’s not the way it works.”
Twenty years in the past, psychological well being didn’t have a lot area inside a locker room. St. Joe’s had a sports activities psychologist, Joel Fish, however individuals who sought him out often wanted him to navigate basketball-related questions – tips on how to focus higher on their foul capturing; tips on how to keep motivated when their taking part in time diminished.
“As athletes, we’re conditioned to be the powerful guys, like superheroes nearly,” Nelson says. “To say you may have an issue? That it’s worthwhile to speak about it to somebody? Nah. You possibly can’t try this.”
But simply three years after he turned professional, Nelson himself found the fragility of the road between muscling by way of and needing assist when he misplaced his dad, Floyd, in a drowning accident. He remembers sitting at his locker after a recreation sobbing uncontrollably.
Solely on the insistence of common supervisor Otis Smith and coach Stan Van Gundy did he converse with a sports activities psychologist. He went reluctantly. “I used to be lucky that I had individuals who noticed what was happening, and I used to be no less than open-minded sufficient to get the assistance,” Nelson says. “If not, who is aware of what occurs to me, proper? To my profession? To my life? I perceive how this occurs. The Delonte I knew was resilient, strong-minded, however once you’re speaking about psychological well being, it might probably get the very best of anyone.”
Former Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli final texted with Delonte West on April 25, 2022. (Harry How / Getty Photos)
The primary time Martelli stepped in was in 2016. West was seen panhandling on the streets in Houston, sporting a hospital robe and no footwear. There had been different scary moments — in 2009, he was arrested on a three-wheel motorbike for a minor visitors violation and located to be carting three weapons and a knife.
He at all times had a proof. He was transporting the firearms, serving to a homeless particular person, not homeless himself. By 2016, West’s NBA profession had lengthy since run its course. He’d had good years and good moments — most memorably a game-winner in a playoff recreation for the Cavaliers — however he additionally had a fame of being troublesome, and bounced from workforce to workforce. The final straw got here in 2012, when West was twice suspended by the Mavericks for conduct detrimental to the workforce. He tried to hold on, discover some run abroad and within the G League. The search resulted in 2015.
So when Martelli noticed the video a 12 months later, he was alarmed sufficient that he reached out to former NBA coach John Lucas, who runs a substance abuse facility for athletes. Lucas thought he may assist. Martelli was optimistic. It labored till it didn’t, starting a sample that lasted for years. West would go away remedy with large goals, often about resuscitating his basketball profession, however no actual plan. When the dream fizzled, he’d wind up proper again the place he began.
His NBA earnings depleted — at one level, West signed a $12.8 million cope with Cleveland — he’d ask his former coach and teammates for cash, often only a few hundred {dollars} right here or there. In the event that they declined, he’d cease answering texts for a spell. Martelli tried to assist financially; Nelson most popular to search out him secure harbor, or see if he may assist get West medicines. It went on like that for years, backwards and forwards, West out and in of their lives.
Then in January 2020, one other viral video confirmed West badly crushed after an altercation in D.C. Quietly, the NBA Gamers Affiliation tried to assist, as did Cuban. He footed the invoice to ship West to Rebound Institute, an outside remedy clinic created by former NBA participant Jayson Williams, who had his personal struggles with substance abuse.
Quickly Martelli, Cuban and Nelson, hell-bent on serving to West, linked on convention calls, speaking to the advisors on the facility. Powerful love, the advisors preached. Let him get on his personal two toes. Don’t foot the invoice. Don’t ship the cash.
It gave the impression to be working. On the rehab facility, West went skydiving and canoeing, labored on a ship, acquiescing to the power’s mantra to give up and belief. Jesiolowski received the tackle from Martelli and despatched a care bundle, together with a hoodie he’d received in a hoops match and a e-book by ultramarathoner David Goggins. He added his title and quantity however by no means heard again.
West wound up leaving the clinic. In September 2020, one other video surfaced, this time displaying West panhandling in Dallas. Cuban drove to the fuel station and picked him up, sending him once more to Rebound. A month later, he posted an image of West on horseback on Twitter. “A protracted, lengthy option to go however he has taken the primary steps,” Cuban wrote. West talked about getting a job on the clinic after he was carried out along with his personal rehab. He sounded hopeful.
Lower than a 12 months after leaving the rehab facility — in October 2021 — West was arrested after banging on law enforcement officials’ doorways in Florida. In the course of the arrest, he ranted about being higher than LeBron James and claimed he was each Jesus Christ and the president. Makes an attempt by The Athletic to achieve West through textual content message to his final recognized cellular phone quantity went unanswered.
“It’s simply, disappointing is what it’s. Or irritating, I assume,” Cuban says. “Delonte sabotages himself. … I don’t know what else to say. It’s what it’s. I attempted.”
He sounds resigned and exhausted. And he’s. All of them are. After they step again from it, they see it for what it’s — a semi-famous particular person caught within the disaster that torpedoes so many households. He’s not particular or immune simply because he may play basketball.
“It brings me to tears,” Nelson says. “He has so many individuals who love him, who wish to assist him, however he has to wish to assist himself. … I’m right here for him. I’ll at all times be right here for him. I attempted, and I’ll proceed to strive if I can, however he has to fulfill us midway. He has to need the assistance.”
The 2003-04 Saint Joseph’s Hawks gathered at an area nation membership for a reunion. (Courtesy Phil Martelli)
The hairlines hung again slightly, and the waistlines pushed ahead, however the tales? In contrast to the tales informed at most reunion gatherings, these tales — of a small Jesuit faculty, led by a Philly lifer, a diminutive level guard and an unheralded two-guard threatening to finish Indiana’s reign because the final workforce to go undefeated in faculty basketball — didn’t must be embellished.
In September, the 2003-04 Saint Joseph’s Hawks gathered at an area nation membership for a reunion. Not everybody may make it, however everybody was invited. Together with West. Martelli emailed his mom, Delphina, inviting her in addition to her son.
The final time he spoke with Delphina she begged the coach to assist her discover some hope for her son. “He’s received nothing to look ahead to,” he says she informed him. Martelli thought possibly the reunion may try this. Neither got here. Martelli didn’t anticipate them to; part of him fearful what would occur in the event that they did.
However West’s title got here up usually, because the tales flowed from the 4 p.m. cocktail hour and gone the dinner service, pushing towards 11 at night time. “It felt like a chunk was lacking,” Jesiolowski says. “Like the entire household wasn’t there.”
Martelli final texted with West on April 25, 2022. West informed him he was dwelling outdoors of a 7-11 in Alexandria, Va. Martelli pressed him for the tackle after which referred to as a training buddy within the space. He requested his buddy if he knew a cop. Possibly they might arrest West, cost him with vagrancy and get him off the streets and into rehab. Martelli shakes his head. “Take into consideration that,” he says. “I used to be going to get my very own participant arrested, and I assumed it was a good suggestion.”
Six months later, West was arrested outdoors of the identical comfort retailer on 4 prices: automobile trespassing, coming into a automobile, fleeing from regulation enforcement and public intoxication. Martelli fielded one other textual content, this time for a aircraft ticket in order that, if the fees have been dropped, West may get to Texas, the place his two kids are, and attempt to discover a recent begin.
Martelli didn’t ship the cash. He hasn’t heard from West since. Neither has anybody else.
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; pictures: Harry How, Doug Pensioner / Getty Photos)
