Ken Berger of CBS Sports offers a reality check to those unfamiliar with bi-polar disorder, and exhorts West and the Cavs to confront this problem head on:
Thoughts on Delonte West from Around the Web
Mental illness is not an excuse for skipping practice, and it’s certainly not a free pass to ride around on a motorcycle armed for a shootout with barbarians at the gates of Hell. But mental illness is a reality and a stigma, a serious issue in sports that is rarely spoken about.It is rarely spoken about because athletes are supposed to be pillars of strength who are too proud to admit weakness. It is taboo because no athlete wants to be labeled as mentally weak, lest that affect his ability to compete or sign his next contract.
To their credit, the Cavs have shown compassion and understanding for West’s issues, granting him a leave of absence in training camp last year to deal with them. But an NBA team is not meant to be, nor is it capable of being, a depression treatment center. If West needs additional help that cannot be provided within the confines of his employment, then he must seek it.
From a Cleveland blog, Waiting for Next Year, word that West could be out longer than you think (via Bethlehem Shoals):
Based on the information we’ve gathered from our sources, the situation is in fact more serious than many originally thought. At this point we should be guarded in our optimism regarding a timeframe for Delonte’s return to the team. Obviously we wish him the best, and there are more important issues at hand than his status with the team.
To which Shoals responds with a reality check of his own, examining the potential consequences on the court for the Cavaliers:
Not to bring basketball into the picture when there are far bigger things at stake, but what makes this news extra poignant is just how important West is to the Cavs. His synergy with Mo Williams was absolutely essential to the team’s more fluid offense last year; heck, based on what Mo did when Delonte missed time with an injury in 2008-09, he’s vital to Williams playing at an All-Star level.
It would be a fantastic story if West got himself together and was able to play a central part in bringing a championship to Cleveland. Unfortunately, this kind of disorder rarely lends itself to such tidy solutions.
And finally, SBN’s Cavs blog, Fear the Sword, offers a word of advice to Cleveland players and coaches in dealing with Delonte:
Perhaps the best course of action right now for the team is to get West the help he needs and distance themselves from him – remove the pressures of playing basketball – until he is back in his routine. It might even be a good idea to allow West to handle his off-court issues(he has a Nov. 20th court date) before having him on the basketball court.
In no way am I suggesting the team abandon Delonte, and I don’t believe they would. At the same time, however, the last thing the Cavaliers need is a day-to-day Delonte watch. Have West step aside, for now, and let both sides focus on what they need to do right now. For the Cavs, that is getting ready for the season. For West, it is something much more important – focus on getting healthy.
A lot of good stuff, out there. Rarely does a situation in sports force us to confront items of such complexity. This isn’t an injury, it isn’t an amusing skirmish with the law that we can all riff on. This a person who suffers from a disorder that’s rarely seen in anyone, let alone pro athletes, and can’t be treated with any sort of quick-fix surgery. It’s not easy stuff; the brain is a muscle that more often than not renders the smartest among us dumbfounded.
Helping West will require a delicate mixture of patience, vigilance, and understanding. And knowing when to do what will require an enormous amount of wisdom, a challenge for everyone in the organization, to say nothing of what might happen when they’re all on a basketball court.
So far, everyone’s proven up to the task and is saying the right things, but more and more, it looks as though this problem isn’t going away, and the Cavs players, coaches, and management, and most of all, Delonte, could all be in for a long struggle. And, at the risk of invoking hyperbole, it’s the type of struggle that can define people.
If Delonte can weather this storm, you’d have to believe he’ll come back stronger than ever. And if the Cavaliers can work with him, and exercise the enormous maturity it’ll take to deal with this problem collectively, well, they too will be fortified like never before. Even the greatest challenges can serve as opportunities.
(I feel like that’s been said either by a. a United States President, b. a Nike Livestrong Ad c. Michael Jordan’s closing line in his HoF speech, or d. Shane Falco.)
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