Addiction was the downfall for ex-NBA player Chris Herren. Here is his story.

NEWARK − The greatest days of former NBA player Chris Herren's life — the births of his children, scoring 30 points against No. 1 Duke, becoming a member of the Boston Celtics — were all overshadowed by his addictions.

Herren, 47, now travels the country telling his story more than 200 times a year of a life consumed by a quest for alcohol, cocaine, heroin and pills, until finally turning things around in 2008.

Herren shared his emotional experiences in recent speeches at Licking Memorial Hospital's quarterly corporate breakfast and at Granville High School.

“Over the last 12 years, I’ve dedicated most of my life to traveling all across the country sharing my story," Herren said Tuesday morning at the breakfast event. "I’ve had a responsibility of walking into rooms and presenting in front of almost 2 million children. And I truly believe in my heart that I’ve been able to make a difference for some.”

Herren said the most common question he hears from students is, "How do I help someone that I care about?"

"Kids are looking for some info. on how to intervene in somebody's life," he said. "It's at every school. You want them to reach out for resources at school."

Herren's story is full of broken promises and lost opportunities as well as wise advice and ominous warnings he ignored, always choosing his addiction over everything and everyone else in his life.

The beginning of Chris Herren's struggles with addiction

At age 10, when his mom first threatened to leave his alcoholic father, he made a promise that still haunts him.

“I said to her, if you’re going to leave my dad, please take me with you,” Herren said. “I don’t care where we go. I want to be with you. And I want you to know something, mom, if you take me, you’ll never have to worry about me, I promise you.

“I broke that promise four years later when she started worrying about me. She caught me getting drunk in the woods behind my house with my father’s Miller Lites.”

His parents separated when he was 18 years old. Despite being recruited by marquee college basketball programs like Kentucky, the Massachusetts native went to Boston College to stay close to his mother. But, after a month on campus and a photo shoot with Sports Illustrated, he went to his dorm room and discovered his roommate had cocaine.

“At 18 years old, I looked at that one little pile of cocaine in my dorm room desk on the campus of Boston College and I said to myself, 'Do this drug one time and I’ll never do it again.' I had no idea at 18 years old when I promised myself just one time, that one line would take 14 years to walk away.”

Four months later, he was kicked out of Boston College with three failed drug tests.

“I remember waking up in my mom’s house when she’s going through the divorce with my dad, to see her crying and this time it was about me," Herren said.

Six months later, coach Jerry Tarkanian gave him a second chance at Fresno State, where he averaged more than 17 points per game in his first season.

A year after coming to California for college, though, he partied with some friends, drinking alcohol and doing cocaine. Then he admitted his drug use prior to taking a random drug test. He said the athletic director told him, “Christopher, this drug problem is never going to leave you, son. It’s always going to have a hold of you.”

They sent him to a 28-day treatment center. He had to announce on national TV he was a drug addict. But he played that next season, when his wife was pregnant with their son.

An NBA career derailed by addiction

Ultimately, he was selected in the second round of the NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets, whose players knew his struggles and tried to take care of him, not letting him drink, smoke or leave the hotel by himself. He appeared in 45 games that season, averaging about 3 points per game.

“That rookie season was the best I ever had in basketball,” Herren said.

But the good times didn’t last. In the offseason, he was watching TV with his son when someone knocked on the door. It was a childhood friend, who sold him one pill of oxycontin for $20.