Willie Cauley-Stein, former center for the Warriors and Kings, has shared the reasons behind his 2021 NBA “personal leave” and his exit from the league in 2022. In an interview with Kyle Tucker of The Athletic, the 31-year-old discussed his battle with severe drug addiction and how he found happiness while recovering.
Cauley-Stein expressed gratitude for the opportunity to tell his story, acknowledging that he was fortunate to survive. “I could easily be dead,” he told Tucker.
He revealed that his substance abuse began in the summer of 2019, following the shooting of three friends in Sacramento, one of whom was killed. At that time, he had recently signed a near league-minimum contract with the Golden State Warriors after not receiving an extension from the Kings, despite a strong finish to his rookie contract. In an attempt to cope, he turned to what he believed were counterfeit Percocet pills.
Cauley-Stein told Tucker that his mental health began to deteriorate during that time. “Balancing all of that—dealing with the situation and trying to perform for a new team on a low contract, while also facing the news of my wife’s pregnancy—just led to a lot of upheaval, and I turned to pain pills as an escape from reality.”
His struggles intensified after receiving the news of his grandmother’s bone cancer diagnosis. On December 1, 2021, less than a week after her death, Cauley-Stein checked into rehab.
At that point, he was with the Dallas Mavericks but had played only 18 games, posting career lows in points (1.9), rebounds (2.1), and minutes played (9.8), and shooting a career-low 46% from the field.
The No. 6 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft was using pills during practice to manage withdrawal symptoms, unaware that the pills were laced with fentanyl, a substance much more potent than heroin and responsible for many overdose deaths.
“I didn’t realize it until I turned myself in,” Cauley-Stein said. “I told my wife, ‘Oh my God,’ because I often hear stories of people taking a single pill laced with fentanyl and dying. I was taking hundreds of pills over months and years. It could have easily been me.”Since then, Cauley-Stein has made progress, playing 13 games with the Houston Rockets’ G League affiliate during the 2022-23 season. He now aims to return to the NBA, determined to stay strong and sober for his family.
“I had to get better for them,” Cauley-Stein said. “It’s funny, I’m only 30, but my kids don’t really know me as a basketball star. What’s amazing is that I’m feeling better than I have in a decade, probably since I left Kentucky. I’m rested, refreshed, and ready to go.”
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