{"id":535781,"date":"2026-03-14T11:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/535781\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:25:10","slug":"former-nba-star-chris-washburn-reflects-on-drugs-downfall-and-second-chances-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/535781\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NBA star Chris Washburn reflects on drugs, downfall and second chances | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Golden State Warriors<\/a> drafted Chris Washburn with the No 3 pick in 1986, it should have been a dream come true. Instead, it might have been the worst thing that could have happened for the 6ft 11in NC State prospect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put on a smile because they were paying me to be out there,\u201d Washburn, a former three-time high school All-American, tells rhe Guardian. \u201cBut I felt alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oakland was just about as far as you could get from Washburn\u2019s hometown of Hickory, North Carolina. There was hope the team could help. He was on a roster with the likes of Sleepy Floyd and Chris Mullin. In the preseason, the rookie Washburn scored prolifically. He had a starting role on the team. Everything was going well \u2013 until it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut drugs took a toll,\u201d Washburn says. \u201cMy mind wasn\u2019t on basketball. A lot of times, I was on the bench watching the clock tick down because as soon as the fourth quarter was over, I could leave to go get high.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NBA\u2019s so-called \u201ccocaine era\u201d<\/a> has been well-documented. But while much attention has been paid on athletes who lost their money and standing in the league, not enough is paid to the reasons why. Sure, drugs were everywhere, from Hollywood movie sets to New York City discos. But there were real reasons people turned to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one paid attention,\u201d says Washburn, who, though being so highly touted, only played parts of two NBA<\/a> seasons. \u201cNow, if a team sees a player fading, they\u2019ll step in. But back then, no one did. Cocaine, crack was new. They didn\u2019t know what to look for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washburn says he ultimately faults himself for how his brief career unfolded. \u201cAll I had to do was stop,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I felt more alive when I was doing crack.\u201d Still, there was a real sense of loneliness<\/a> and depression he felt as a young player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came into the league,\u201d says Washburn, who averaged 17.6 points and 6.7 boards as a sophomore at NC State, despite several off-court controversies, \u201cthe NBA was trying to clean up the image from the 70s. They said there were two things you can\u2019t do: cocaine and heroin. That\u2019s all they had to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the clear, stern warning, many players felt the pain of self-inflicted wounds, from multi-time All-Stars like Micheal Ray Richardson, who was the first player banned for life by the NBA for drugs, to youngsters like Washburn, who, despite using often, said he had trouble functioning on them. \u201cI couldn\u2019t handle the drugs,\u201d the 59-year-old says of his playing days.<\/p>\n

The big man\u2019s body broke down, his game suffered. He missed practices, lost focus. He was out of the league \u2013 banned for drugs after just two seasons. Washburn only played in 72 regular-season games, along with six playoff games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a young guy, very impressionable,\u201d Washburn says. \u201cA lot of people my size, we grew physically real fast, but mentally, some of us like myself took a little time. I made a lot of mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first time Washburn tried cocaine, he says, he did it in college with Len Bias, of all people. Famously, Bias died in 1986 at 22 years old, just two days after being drafted one slot ahead of Washburn by the Boston Celtics. Many say Bias was the rival Michael Jordan never had. Washburn says the senior Bias was who he wanted to be \u2013 a star with the world at his fingertips.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking this is what we\u2019re supposed to be doing at that level,\u201d Washburn says, thinking back on trying drugs with Bias in a dorm room.<\/p>\n

But even when Bias died from a drug overdose after Boston made him the No 2 pick, Washburn wasn\u2019t spurred to quit. The two standouts weren\u2019t best friends, so Washburn said it was just another unfortunate headline. Soon, that\u2019s what he was, too.<\/p>\n

After the NBA, Washburn bounced around. \u201cI only got high on days that ended in \u2018y\u2019,\u201d he says now with a hard-earned laugh. \u201cI got high when I was down. I got high when I was happy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

William Bedford, Len Bias, Chris Washburn and Brad Daugherty, left to right, pose at the 1986 NBA draft. Photograph: Noren Trotman\/NBAE\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

For a few years, he lived in the street. He ate out of trashcans<\/a>. He stole everything from perfume to lunch meat. He went to prison. He married, but at some point his wife up and left their Houston home for a less hectic life in Dallas. Washburn stayed in Houston to get high. He had no possessions. He slept wherever he could find a park bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have gone to the John Lucas treatment center [in Houston],\u201d Washburn says. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t want treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says his issues didn\u2019t come from a broken childhood home or from abuses he suffered early on in life. Washburn grew up in a two-parent household, one that prided itself on discipline. In that way, the former NBA top pick was actually rebelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to get out and do stuff I only saw on TV or head people talking about,\u201d Washburn says. \u201cIt was an adrenaline rush, yeah. But also a learning process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the former No 3 pick speaks to young people about the perils of addiction. He also says he\u2019s tried to reach out to leagues like the NBA to talk to troubled stars like Ja Morant, but he hasn\u2019t been afforded the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got caught with guns, too,\u201d Washburn says. \u201cI want to talk to him. To say it\u2019s OK to make mistakes but just don\u2019t make the same mistakes over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washburn is one of those people who has seen it all. He calls it understanding \u201cboth sides of the fence\u201d. Lots of people have experienced poverty and many have known wealth. Few have seen both \u2013 but Washburn has.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought the party would never end,\u201d he says. \u201cBut you can have money in your 20s and then be flat broke and homeless in your 50s.\u201d<\/p>\n

A player\u2019s outcome depends so often on the quality of their relationships. In Oakland, Washburn\u2019s life was devoid of family or close friends. He didn\u2019t click with his team or coach, the famously irate George Karl. Then in a matter of months, it was all over.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday,\u201d Washburn says, \u201cI have a smaller circle, but it\u2019s one I can trust \u2013 that\u2019s all I was actually looking for back then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Washburn is married and living in his hometown of Hickory. He recently co-wrote a candid new memoir, Out Of Bounds<\/a>, which highlights his story. Thankfully, the book has a happy ending \u2013 the former high school standout is alive and well.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with basketball,\u201d he says, \u201ceverything has an expiration date with me. Someone asked me if basketball had worked out, would I have played 15 or 20 years like LeBron? And I said no. After I\u2019ve given enough to a sport, I walk away and do something different.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the former top prospect, his a-ha moment came when his father died. His mother was alone and Washburn had to take care of her. With her own medical issues, he had to take on the power of attorney and handle her finances.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough I\u2019d stolen from her and my dad in the past,\u201d Washburn says, \u201cat this point it was all on me. If I was a person who still wanted to get high, we would have been homeless. That\u2019s why I say the Man Upstairs makes no mistakes. He got me to a point to clean everything up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior, Washburn had been to rehab 14 times and it never stuck (he would list his dealers as family and they\u2019d visit him with a score). But once he had to take care of his mother, he says, he stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got tired of being broke,\u201d Washburn says. By then, he also had four sons, including a future<\/a> NBA player. \u201cI wanted to be more than Chris Washburn the junkie. So, I had to make some changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his new book, Washburn says he wrote the memoir to help others like him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew there were other Chris Washburns out there,\u201d he says. \u201cNot just on the court but off the court. Now I\u2019m seeing my message start to get out there. You can only hold certain things down for so long \u2013 if it\u2019s meant to get out there, it will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Golden State Warriors drafted Chris Washburn with the No 3 pick in 1986, it should have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-535781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}