Mark Cuban details his role helping Delonte West towards recovery originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Former NBA player and Washington, D.C., native Delonte West’s struggle with addiction and homelessness has been well publicized, but recently he’s been getting the help necessary to get back on his feet.
About two weeks ago, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban helped to get West off the streets in Dallas and on the road towards recovery. On a recent episode of the Pardon My Take podcast, Cuban said it’s not the first time he’s attempted to help his former player.
“We had tried to help Delonte before, and it didn’t work out. I don’t think he was ready yet,” Cuban said. “I saw the pictures and people were saying he was in Dallas and where he was — I-75 and like 635, which is like two miles from my house. So I started driving around looking for him.”
Cuban was on a mission to accomplishing a good deed in helping West, who starred at Eleanor Roosevelt High School just outside Washington. After looking around for him, Cuban got a hold of West’s mother, he said, and got West’s phone number from her.
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“He didn’t call me back for a few days,” Cuban said. “Then he called me back and I told him, ‘Delonte, don’t move. I’m coming to get you.’ And that’s what I did: Went and got him a hotel room, let him sleep it off and went to get him some food. I sat there, waited for his mom to get there and waited with him. She got him on a plane and got him to rehab. So you probably saw the picture. Then, I just got a picture today and he was skydiving. Skydiving!
“So he’s making progress. I just hope he stays with it. The first couple weeks are tough, but going through rehab and dealing with addiction that’s not easy.”
