The drama of former Warriors' player Willie Cauley-Stein: "I Could Be Dead"

For most, The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is a summer spectacle, an event where college alumni teams compete for a $1 million prize while filling TV schedules during the slowest days of the sports calendar. But for Willie Cauley-Stein, former player for the Golden State Warriors among others, this competition meant much more than that. It was an opportunity for redemption, a light in the darkness, after an NBA career that shifted from promising to mysterious.

Cauley-Stein, a former All-American at Kentucky, and the 6th overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, started his professional career strong. He made the All-Rookie team and became a regular starter. However, just as his career should have peaked, he suddenly found himself out of the league, with the reasons behind his exit largely unknown.

The invitation to represent his alma mater again in the TBT not only rekindled his love for basketball but also restored his hope. When his former teammates, James Young, the Harrison twins, and Tyler Ulis, joined him on a team honoring their old coach, John Calipari, under the name La Familia, the team soared on a nostalgic journey reminiscent of the iconic DeLorean scene in "Back to the Future." For Cauley-Stein, this experience was like a trip back in time, taking him to a place where he felt loved and to a moment when he had hope, before losing the game—and himself—in the depths of a pill bottle.

Could Be Dead

“I could easily be dead,” Cauley-Stein admitted in a recent interview. “So that happiness you saw from me in the TBT is different because I know the bullet I really dodged. I reached out for help before it was too late, and I got better, but basketball has been much harder to regain. So when they asked me to do this, it was too perfect. It just mirrored those old times, exactly as it was. Boom, they flooded me with all this love I needed, absolutely needed, and I played the best basketball I've played in years. That s— was amazing.”

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, El drama del ex de los Warriors Willie Cauley-Stein: "Podría estar muerto"