Willie Cauley-Stein Publicly Shares Story of Drug Addiction and Recovery, "I could easily be dead"

Willie Cauley-Stein reminded us this summer why he is one of the most beloved Kentucky basketball players. The former All-American took us all on a nostalgic thrill ride through the TBT. When he blocked seven shots at Rupp Arena, then netted three-ball after three-ball in front of a packed house at Freedom Hall, it probably got many people to ask the question, “How come the NBA didn’t work out for this guy?”

After years away from the NBA spotlight, Cauley-Stein is coming clean about getting clean. He shared his story with Kyle Tucker, and the details are not for the faint of heart.

“I could easily be dead,” is something you hear often from folks in recovery. That’s not hyperbole for Cauley-Stein.

He stepped away from the Dallas Mavericks in November of 2021 to begin a 65-day inpatient rehab program. When he checked himself into the facility, he told officials that Percocet was his drug of choice. The prescription painkillers numbed his physical pain and mental anguish. He wasn’t taking bootleg Percocets. The fake pills were laced with fentanyl, the lethal drug that is regularly responsible for accidental overdoses.

“I didn’t know until I turned myself in. I looked at my wife and said, ‘Oh, my God’ because I hear stories all the time about kids going to a party, never taking a drug before, deciding to pop a Percocet, and it ends up being fentanyl, and they die. From one pill,” Cauley-Stein said. “Dude, I was taking hundreds of them, for months and years. It could’ve so easily been me.”

[The Athletic: Willie Cauley-Stein turns back time in The Basketball Tournament with Kentucky’s La Familia]

From Tragedy to Triumph in the TBT

Cauley-Stein did not turn to drugs overnight. Following his 2015 All-American campaign at Kentucky, he was selected by the Sacramento Kings with the sixth overall pick. Near the end of his deal, he was playing the best basketball of his career. He received votes for the NBA’s Most Improved Player after averaging 11.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. Instead of getting re-signed, he was forced to hit free agency where he landed with Golden State. That’s when things started getting sideways.

Three of his friends were shot, and one was killed, at the house he leased in Sacramento. That happened right around the same time his grandmother was diagnosed with bone cancer.

“That kind of started a spiral of mental health,” he said. “Trying to deal with that and hoop at the same time — for a new team, on a bad deal, and then my wife got pregnant — it was just too many weird things and big changes, and I got on the pain pills trying to just run away from reality.”

Fortunately, he decided to quit running away. The stay in rehab transformed his personal life. Now he’s hoping his impressive performance in TBT can inject new life into his professional basketball aspirations.

The agile 7-footer averaged 10.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, all while shooting better than 70 percent from the floor. He was named Defensive Player of the Year in the TBT by blocking 14 shots, five more than the next closest player. Even though they came up short in the semifinals of the winner-take-all $1 million tournament, Cauley-Stein plans to play in the event again next year.

“This game we played right here is the reason why I decided to come play,” he said shortly after the win at Freedom Hall. “This thing’s different. I knew it was gonna sell out. I’m like, please don’t lose, because I’m trying to play that game. Thank God we didn’t. We got to play that game and there’s no other feeling like that. It took ten years to get that feeling back, and I’m going to ride it.”

All professional options are on the table, but he’s not ruling out a return to Lexington with his family to complete his degree. Cauley-Stein was in a dark place not that long ago. After spending a summer with his old Kentucky family, he once again feels like the affable individual Big Blue Nation fell in love with.

“All those people remembering me and still loving me after all this time, it’s like, wow, this really is home.”