Former Boston Celtic Chris Herren (left) was invited by Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni (right) to speak at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield Wednesday on behalf of the Learn to Cope program (Photo by Peter Francis)
SPRINGFIELD – Chris Herren stood alone in the hallway of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Wednesday evening, resplendently tailored in a grey suit.
Hard to believe that, just a few years prior, the former professional basketball player from Fall River was living a life which has become all too commonplace throughout the United States, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Hampden County.
Sponsored by Hampden County District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni, Herren was brought in to kick off the opening of the western Mass. chapter of the Learn to Cope program, a network for parents and family members affected by addiction, an event entitled “An Evening of Hope”.
“There isn’t a specific gender, race, or sex – this problem affects everyone,” Mastroianni said of drug abuse, specifically prescription drugs such as painkillers and oxycontin. “And it goes under the radar.”
Mastroianni added that the issue of drug abuse is one he has spoken about at “every school and community in the county” and that some communities acknowledge that they have a problem, while some shirk it.
Westfield Vocational Technical High School Principal Stefan Czaporowski and WVTHS Substance Abuse Counselor Kristine Hupfer brought Chris Herren to speak on September 13. (Photo submitted)
At one time considered among the top prep guards in the nation, Herren’s personal descent from the brightest hardwood star in New England to a drug addict who ran amok and cheated death on multiple occasions now serves as the basis for a cautionary tale he has been sharing all over the country since he got clean on August 1, 2008, after over a decade of drug and alcohol abuse.
He also formed The Herren Project, with the mission “to provide assistance in taking the first steps toward recovery and a life of sobriety, educational programs and resources to increase awareness on the signs of addiction, and bring hope for a better tomorrow.”
“My message is my story,” Herren said in his distinct patois. “It’s one of hope and learning to cope. It’s one of faith, because only God could’ve taken me out of the hole I was in.”
His descent was illustrated with such a brutal honesty that the only sounds heard from the 400 or so patrons who filled the Hall of Fame’s main court were those of jaws hitting the hardwood.
The 6’2″ Herren told story after story, of trying cocaine for the first time as a freshman with an athletic scholarship at Boston College, a school he would be kicked out of for using drugs three months later, to being introduced to oxycontin during a cookout in Fall River following his rookie season with the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, to binges in which he took “speedballs”, a mixture of cocaine and heroin, for five days straight in Fresno, California, where he played college ball at Fresno State after getting the boot from BC.
Herren eventually hit rock bottom and was sleeping on the street for a short time before entering rehab, nearly losing his wife and three children in the process.
After his speech, Herren walked out into the same lobby he stood alone in just an hour earlier, only to be mobbed by the denizens who had just been hanging on his every word.
Photographs, handshakes, and hugs were handed out to anyone within the former Boston Celtic’s arms reach, and it is that ability to connect with his audience that so impressed Westfield Vocational Technical High School Principal Stefan Czaporowski when Herren visited the school on September 13.
“He (Herren) was incredible,” Czaporowski said. “You could hear a pin drop in that assembly.”
Czaporowski added that Herren showed clips from the documentary “Unguarded”, which ESPN produced for it’s “30 for 30” film series about his struggle and subsequent rehabilitation, and gave students his contact information, which Czaporowksi said has had a positive effect on his students.
“Quite a few people have contacted him,” Czaporowski said. “He’s a very powerful speaker. We had teachers who’ve been teaching for years tell us it was the best assembly they’d ever seen.”
Herren was brought to Voc-Tech by the school’s substance abuse counselor Kristine Hupfer, who believed he had quite an impact on the students, so much so that she attended the event Wednesday evening with several students who wished to hear him speak again.
“(Bringing Herren to Voke) was one of the best investments we could’ve made,” she said. “The students were in tune and connected with him.”
Hupfer said his speech to Voc-Tech was more tailored to his experience of starting in with substance abuse in high school.
“It was heartfelt,” she said. “His message, that addiction affects not just addicts but family and friends, there was a piece we all could relate to.”
After the September visit to the school, Herren held a question and answer session which Hupfer said was the most effective aspect of the presentation.
“Some of the students who asked questions that day had never asked questions in front of an assembly before,” she said.
Herren believes that the substance abuse epidemic still has a long way to go before it’s eradicated in the United States, Massachusetts, and in Hampden County.
“I don’t think it’s improving – not yet,” he said prior to his speech Wednesday. “We have to change the curriculum. Many still believe it (addiction) is a shameful thing, when it really is an illness. Kids need to be reminded on a daily basis of the dangers of substance abuse.”
Czaporowski believes that the impact of the Chris Herren story are already being felt at the his school.
“Kristine (Hupfer) told me we’re already seeing results,” he said. “He’s gotten people to think about substance abuse and behaviors. It’s had an effect.”
