Delonte West Homeless? Former NBA Guard Seen On The Streets Looking Disheveled, Holding Cardboard Sign


Delonte West made close to $14 million during his NBA career, but there are fears that the former guard may now be homeless as he has been overcome by bad circumstances and mental illness.

West was known for his rise to stardom on the Saint Joseph’s University team that went undefeated in 2003, and entered the NBA as an undersized but sharpshooting guard. But his tenure in the league was a difficult one, as he faced disciplinary issues and ultimately ran out of second chances.

There have been rumors that West has fallen on hard times, and a new report claims that he could even be homeless. West was seen on a Maryland street this week looking disheveled and holding a cardboard sign. An onlooker noticed West and shared the picture on Twitter, along with the caption, “Let’s Pray For Delonte West Y’all He Bipolar And On St.Barnabas Road Bumming Smh He Ain’t Taking His Medicine.”

Delonte West actually responded to the rumors, saying that he was really tending to a different homeless man.

“(I) was helping a homeless man in my neighborhood that’s paralyzed from neck down,” West said (via NESN). “I parked my car and got out to help because it was 90 degree weather and (I) was feeling blessed at the moment for just having legs.”

This is not the first time that Delonte West had been spotted in questionable conditions. Earlier this year, the former NBA guard was seen loitering around near a Jack in The Box restaurant in Houston wearing just a hospital robe and no shoes.

When an onlooker noticed the former player and asked if he was Delonte West, he reportedly replied, “I used to be, but I’m not about that life anymore.” The person who found West later posted a picture of West on Instagram, saying that the former NBA player appeared to be “doped out.”

Delonte West also had a messy exit from the NBA. He faced suspensions and drifted from team to team, and Fox Sports noted that West took to social media to blast some former teams and teammates.

“Several outlets reported that West took a bunch of shots at LeBron James, his old teammate on the Cleveland Cavaliers, on social media in late December and early January. The posts are all deleted along with his Instagram account, however, and according to one report, they were posted by a fake account; the report says this private account likely is West’s real Twitter. “

The Washington Post noted that Delonte’s problems go back much longer than that, all the way to middle school when his light skin and red hair made him a target for bullying.

“I took all that and put everything into basketball,” he said. “You can’t laugh at this on the court.”

But Delonte West continued to struggle with mental illness, which made it difficult to maintain his NBA position, especially the intense pressure that it brought. West admitted to the Washington Post that he had tried to kill himself a number of times in his youth, cutting himself and downing pills and often ending up hospitalized.

“I mean, I was basically crying for attention,” he said. “Maybe 17 or 18, you tell the story differently. ‘Man, I tried to kill myself.’ At 31, you say, ‘What the hell was I doing?’ Looking back now, you just think, ‘I was a spoiled brat.'”

But Delonte West said it was at that lowest point that he decided to commit himself to basketball, and eventually became a high school standout and Division I recruit. He would struggle throughout his time in the league, ending his NBA career with a stint on the Dallas Mavericks.

[Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]

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