Delonte West, Lebron James’ ex-teammate from the Cleveland Cavaliers, needs help. That’s the only thing you’ll get from this news today.
West was videoed on the freeway getting stomped on and punched by an unknown person. Twitter user @N90sKindOfWorld filmed the video from what looks like a few car lengths behind.
The video starts with West lying face down on the ground, while someone in a leather jacket standing over him picks him up and slams him face down in the ground. The guy then stomps on West’s head a couple times, after which he throws some left hooks to his head.
The video ends with an apparently unconscious West crumpled on the side of the freeway.
A second video, which looks like it was filmed after, has West handcuffed on the side of the road getting interrogated. How you go from getting stomped out to being handcuffed is a question someone needs to ask. West doesn’t need medical attention?
I can’t believe this is Delonte West. @NBA please help him. https://t.co/6e5LQbKlUj
— Gabrielle Starr (@gfstarr1) January 21, 2020
It seemingly shows a cop interrogating West about what happened:
Cop: Why’d you hit him, did he attack you first, was it self-defense or did you hit him?
West: I was walking down the street, man approached me [unintelligble] with a gun.
Cop: Where’s his gun at?
West: I don’t give a f**k.
Cop: Okay, you know where is gun is?
It ends with some more unintelligible words from West, but somewhere in there is a mention of Trump. That’s random.
West revealed he was diagnosed as bipolar in 2008. Unfortunately, in 2015, in a long interview with the Washington Post, he said he stopped taking his medication and the diagnosis was overblown.
West has decided that the bipolar diagnosis was somewhat overblown, and he’s not taking medication to treat the disorder. Tragic, life-changing events — teenage suicide attempts, divorce, unemployment — and the associated mood swings weren’t necessarily connected, he now says, even though both West and his therapists have said otherwise in the past.
“I am bipolar — just like the rest of us in the world,” he said. “So bipolar is defined as something sad happens, you’re sad. Something happy happens, you’re happy. I think pretty much everyone in the world is like that. Now there’s different levels. How long do you stay sad? How does it affect your behavior? How do you handle these emotions?”
Reading through the Post’s article, it hasn’t been a good life for West. He got teased for his light skin and red hair. Then, his mother sent him to live with his father in Virginia, where he “spiraled downhill” in his words.
He’s trying to explain his mental state and goes back to his childhood growing up in Prince George’s County. He had light skin and red hair and was an easy target for grade-school taunts. For years all he could hear was the sound of other kids laughing at him.
“I took all that and put everything into basketball,” he said. “You can’t laugh at this on the court.”
…In the eighth grade he hurt his leg, and when he couldn’t play basketball, he says, he stopped going to school. His mother sent him to live with his father in rural Louisa County, Va., and that’s where West said he first “kind of spiraled downhill.”
He said he began cutting himself and swallowing pills with names he couldn’t pronounce. He found himself in and out of children’s hospitals, surrounded by other adolescents who had tried hurting themselves. The smallest things sent him into a stupor: couldn’t afford a trip with his AAU basketball team, didn’t see enough of his father, wanted the latest Jordans.
“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.’ ”
NBA and NFL players like Dez Bryant and Jameer Nelson have offered to help West.
— Jameer Nelson (@jameernelson) January 21, 2020
I see a lot dumb comments where folks making fun of Delonte west… this is not a joking matter …. I’m going to figure out how I can help him…. he need to be in rehab or something…
— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) January 21, 2020
I guess we won’t expect LeBron James to say anything though. West boned his mother, Gloria James. Luckily there are still other athletes speaking up though.
Too often these athletes end up forgotten once they can’t run as fast or shoot as well.