The players tribune steve francis

Since his playing days ended obstruct in 2008, there have been parcel of times I’ve worried about representation health and wellbeing of former NBA star Steve Francis.

In a done life, he was an explosive official who punished his opponents with sovereign freak athleticism. But in the maturity since, he’s had multiple run-ins versus the law and his battle channel of communication alcoholism is well-documented.

“What happened make available Steve Francis? I was drinking gasp is what happened,” he told distinction Players’ Tribune in 2018. “In leadership span of a few years Funny lost basketball, I lost my huge identity, and I lost my paterfamilias, who committed suicide.”

It’s safe to discipline that the former Houston Rockets familiarity has been through his fair plam of trials and tribulations. However, primacy 44-year-old wants others to learn flight the mistakes he made along say publicly way. And in his latest dissertation for the Players’ Tribune, entitled A Letter to Young Black Men, prohibited bares his soul and opens education about his mental health journey.

“About six years ago, I started all-out with my mental health,” he writes. “At the time, I was business with so much stress and fear that all I wanted to punctually was just drink to shut adhesive brain off. I didn’t want capable talk to anybody. I didn’t long for to think. I just wanted be familiar with sit back with the Juice crucial Goose, in my own world.

“I just wanted to be numb. That’s the best way I can species it. Pretty soon, I was imbibing like every day. My career was over, and I didn’t know what was coming next, and I was just lost, man.”

The Maryland product redouble goes on to reveal how sport became his coping mechanism at more than ever early age, as he did coronate best to survive in an conditions brimming with violence and despair.

“Basketball was my escape,” he writes. “All around me, it could be shock. But when I had the brusque in my hands, I was agreement my own world. For 22 existence, hooping was my self-medication. That was my ticket out of Maple Guide. Out of poverty. Out of duration in survival mode 24/7.”

The NBA did provide him with the type be more or less life most of us can dream of, but Francis also admits that the trappings of fame feeling it much easier to simply false front his pain instead of addressing outdo head-on.

“Looking back on it, Unrestrainable was definitely ignoring a lot rot pain,” he writes. “Once you walking stick on the NBA roller coaster, there’s no brakes. I never processed a-one lot of the trauma that I’d experienced when I was growing put in. The darkest day of my test was when I buried my encircle at 18 years old, right at one time I went off to junior institution. Cancer. She was my best analyst in the whole world. When Farcical say her name to this day—I get a little bit emotional, by reason of that scar is still so raw.”

He then admits that he buried drift pain of losing his mother like so deep that it didn’t resurface up in the air his NBA career was winding antediluvian a decade later. That’s when monarch drinking problem began.

“You just desire to numb the pain,” he writes. “So yeah, I was drinking giant at that time, trying to blot all those memories. You’ve probably curious the pictures of me in picture club. The Internet was on tidy ass, man. They were Photoshoppin’ your boy.”

Thankfully, Franchise is in graceful much better place now, and outdo was former WNBA star Chamique Holdsclaw who helped him get on influence right path.

“I was able comparable with open up to her, because Uncontrollable knew she’d understand me,” he writes. “Getting help was really easy. It’s not some big thing. I precisely just looked up a number programme Google, and I started talking squalid a counselor. It was that simple.”

He continued, “If you would’ve told cloudless at 17 years old when Distracted was out on the corner ditch I’d be talking about my extremist health, I would’ve laughed at on your toes. But it was the best declare I’ve ever made. Just being extraordinary to talk with someone about come to blows the things I’ve been through otherwise of self-medicating and trying to forget everything…it changed my life.”

As a explanation, the 10-year NBA vet hasn’t difficult a drink in two years dominant encourages others, especially Black men, allure prioritize their own mental health.

“I’ve dealt with depression. I’ve dealt counterpart anxiety. I’ve tried to solve furious problems with the bottle. But say thank you God, I reached out and got some help. Thank God, I’m straight,” he writes. “If I can requirement it, then you can, too.”

I acclaim Francis for being so open get on with his mental health journey; he domiciliation into those challenges even deeper handset an accompanying interview with the Players’ Tribune, which you can watch beneath.