Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has stepped up efforts to help former NBA player Delonte West overcome a series of serious personal issues. On Monday, Cuban told ESPN he had personally picked up West at gas station in the Dallas area and had offered to pay for treatment, should the 37-year-old agree to pleas from friends and family to check into a drug rehabilitation facility.
According to both ESPN and TMZ, the Mavericks owner had tried to contact West for several days after pictures of him panhandling at an intersection in Dallas surfaced last week. Cuban eventually managed to reach West on Monday, before driving to the gas station to pick him up and subsequently taking him to a local hospital.
West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during his career and Cuban is the latest high-profile NBA figure looking to help the former Mavericks guard, whose life appears to have spiralled out of control in recent years.
In 2016, West looked in bad shape when he was spotted at a Jack in the Box in the Houston area, while in January videos circulating on social media showed a man who appeared to be West being attacked in the middle of the road in Washington, D.C. A separate video showed West handcuffed and talking to the police as he accused another man of pulling a gun on him.
A product of Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, West was selected with the No. 24 overall pick by the Boston Celtics in the 2004 NBA Draft and played for eight seasons in the league, publicly disclosing his diagnosis of bipolar disorder during his career.
In an interview with The Washington Post in 2015, West revealed he was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder following a preseason game in 2008, shortly after joining the Cleveland Cavaliers following his first four seasons in the league with the Celtics and the Seattle SuperSonics.
West, who had separated from his first wife just weeks after getting married, took a two-week break from training camp and sought counseling. Just over a year later, officers found three loaded guns on West after he was pulled over for an improper lane change on Route 214, close to his home in Fort Washington, Maryland.
He pleaded guilty to two of the eight charges and was sentenced to eight months of home detention, two months of probation and 40 hours of community service.
West's spell with the Cavaliers ended in 2010, before he returned to Boston for one season and subsequently moved to the Mavericks for the 2011-12 campaign, his final season in the NBA. Two separate spells with the NBA D-League Texas Legends followed either side of two stints in China with the Fujian Xunxing and the Shanghai Sharks.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Dan Cancian is currently a reporter for Newsweek based in London, England. Prior to joining Newsweek in January 2018, he was a news and business reporter at International Business Times UK. Dan has also written for The Guardian and The Observer.
Newsletter
