Delonte West has a well-earned reputation as one of the most mystifying characters in the NBA, and that's putting it delicately. Ask most NBA fans, and they'll tell you straight up, "Delonte seems like the craziest dude in the whole damn league." But there's more to West's story than what you've heard.
Meet A Totally Different Delonte West
Tzvi Twesrky and SLAM Magazine dig a little deeper, and find anecdotes like this:
...Delonte has no idea what he’s going to say to the campers. ... One of the smallest boys in the room raises his hand and, after being called on, shyly asks, “Do you know any other basketball players?”
“I know too many basketball players,” West says, walking toward the camper. “Do you play?” The boy, Andrew, nods meekly. “Well,” West answers, “now I know one more.”
...And if you don’t think that’s pretty awesome, I don’t even want to know you.
On another note, it may not be as adorable, but Delonte explaining his gun charges a few years ago is pretty revealing in its own right. His mother discovered friends of his playing with guns that Delonte owned, and Delonte, after he’d taken medication that made him drowsy, went to get rid of the guns. That’s where the trouble begins.
Gassed up from the commotion, West decided it would be prudent for him to relocate the guns to an empty house he owned nearby. So, with his other vehicles blocked in by guests’ cars, and expecting it to be a short trip, he haphazardly loaded up his Can-Am and placed the weapons in a Velcro-type of bag—"not a desperado, hardcase, gun-shooting-out-the-side type case"—and set off.
"I’m on the Beltway, cruisin’," West says, voice high, emotional and inimitable. "Soon I start realizing I’m dozing in and out. I open my eyes and I went from this lane to that. I’m swervin’, and by the time I wake up, I’m about three exits past my exit.
"There’s this truck flying beside me—" West pauses; this next part is crucial—"and I’m scared to death. So I seen an officer coming up and I try to flag him down. I pull up next to him. He slows down and I get up in front of him. I tell the officer I’m not functioning well and I’m transporting weapons… The rest of the story is what it is.
"I’m not proud of it," concludes West, "but it looks way worse than it was."
What Delonte did was still incredibly stupid, but it's clear in hindsight that it wasn't malicious. And on a broader level, what this story does is add context to a character who's otherwise one of the easiest punchlines in sports. He's still one of the NBA's biggest mysteries, but he doesn't sound quite so crazy when he explains himself, does he?
(You know, unless he's out there talking how that earthquake a few weeks ago was really a conspiracy caused by a government missile. On that one, we're still waiting for an adequate explanation.)
For more on Delonte, his battle with bi-polar disorder, and his plans for the future, check out the full profile over at Slamonline.com. Also, on a completely separate note, this might be my new motto for blogging: "I ain’t lookin’ for no nipple to cry on. I’m just saying what it is."
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