Sunday, February 29, 2004
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Paul Silas would follow a 20-rebound game by trying to drink as many beers.
The Cavaliers coach remembers nights he would chug down a few cold ones before hoarding unopened beers left for his teammates who didn't drink alcohol.
"I would have five or six before I left the locker room," Silas said Tuesday. "I could really drink a lot, and I liked it."
About 15 years ago, he quit.
"I had to," he said. "They say you can't quit on your own, but I did."
Now a recovering alcoholic, Silas can relate from personal experience to the current plight of Vin Baker, the four-time All-Star released last week by the Boston Celtics for violating the terms of his alcohol treatment program.
One of the league's greatest all-time rebounders, the 60-year-old Silas was able to pull his life together. He now prays Baker can one day do the same and hopes others can be sympathetic to his struggle.
"I just hope he can get the desired help he needs and goes through sobriety," Silas said. "Because it [alcoholism] is devastating.
"I hope people understand what it is -- that it's a disease. It's something I can sympathize with him with because I've been there. He has a disease. And I have it, too."
Silas' candid revelation -- he hasn't spoken to Cleveland's players about his alcohol problems -- that he was a heavy drinker was prompted by a question before Monday's game on whether the Cavs were interested in signing Baker.
On Tuesday, Silas went into greater detail about his "demons."
Growing up in Oakland, Calif., Silas was around alcohol at an early age.
His late father would come home from work drunk and pass out in a chair.
Although aware of his father's problem and the potential that he could follow a destructive path, Silas loved the taste of that first beer as a 16-year-old and continued to drink during four years at Creighton.
An NBA lifestyle of late nights, first-class plane trips and luxury hotels contributed to his drinking in the 1960s and 70s, Silas said. So did an American culture, which didn't stigmatize drinking and smoking as it does today.
"When I was with the St. Louis Hawks, we would come in at halftime and there would be a cigarette on each player's chair," Silas said. "Guys would light up. I just smell the stuff now and it makes me sick to my stomach."
Silas's 16-year playing career ended in 1980 when he retired after three seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics. However, his drinking only increased.
He took a job with a consulting firm in New York with his former agent, and Silas said many evenings included post-work cocktails -- a lot of them.
It was following one such night that Silas decided he had had his fill of alcohol.
Driving aimlessly in a drunken stupor, he made a wrong turn and got lost as he tried to get home. Silas decided immediately it was time to straighten out his life.
"I started praying," Silas said, "and I said, 'Lord, if you let me find my way, I won't take another drop.' And there was like an illumination and I saw the [street] sign for where I was. I went home and told me wife, 'That's it.' And I just quit."
Although he was twice an All-Star and won three NBA titles, Silas is sure his drinking affected him as a player, but he'll never know just how much.
"I'm sure it did, but somehow I made it through," he said. "Having a couple of beers after the game, if you can handle it, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. But if you can't, you have to stay away from it -- totally."