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Former Dallas Mavericks guard and eight-year NBA veteran Delonte West is fighting a series of charges stemming from an incident with police in Palm Beach County, Florida. According to court documents, West pleaded not guilty to those charges on November 8.
Per the arrest report, West was apprehended by police in Boynton Beach just before 9 p.m. on October 19 after he was found “yelling and banging on the glass doors” at the Boynton Beach Police Department entrance. Per the report, West was “screaming profanities” while holding open containers of beer and vodka.
The document states that West then walked away from police, who ordered him to stop “given the plain view violation” of the city’s open container ordinance. When he continued to walk away, an officer “cut into his path of travel,” but he continued to refuse to stop, according to the report.
Eventually he complied with a request to put his beverages down on the sidewalk, according to the report, but when he stood back up he “began to place his hands inside the waistband of his pants,” prompting an officer to “unholster and initialize” his Taser. At that point, West “dropped to his knees with his hands in the air” and was handcuffed, the report states. He “continued to be belligerent and screaming profanities” while officers searched him and put him into the patrol car, according to the report, and police said “he did have the odor of an intoxicating beverage upon his breath … and his speech was slowed and slurred, all of which are consistent with impairment.”
West has been charged with resisting arrest and disorderly intoxication, in addition to having open containers.
Mavs Owner Mark Cuban Attempted to Help West in 2020
As relayed by TMZ, bodycam footage of the incident appeared to show West referring to himself as both Jesus and the president of the United States, as well as using homophobic slurs and saying that he was a better basketball player than LeBron James and Michael Jordan.
This is just the latest in a string of incidents for West, who has struggled with substance abuse issues and homelessness in recent years.
In September 2020, Mavs owner Mark Cuban picked West up at a Dallas gas station and quickly got to work in an attempt to help his former player get his life back on track, per ESPN. Friends and family had been imploring West to enter into a drug rehabilitation facility and Cuban ultimately offered to pay for his treatment, the outlet reported.
In January 2021, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that West had gotten a job with the Florida rehab center he attended in the wake of Cuban’s intervention.
Charania further indicated that Cuban had helped West reunite with his mother, who he was still in contact with at the time.
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West’s Hoops Career
A first-round pick of the Boston Celtics in 2004, West‘s last taste of NBA action came during the 2011-12 campaign with the Mavericks. In 44 games that season (33 starts) he averaged 9.6 points, 3.2 assists and 1.3 steals per contest. He later played in the D-League and the CBA in China.
As a collegiate, West was a standout player for coach Phil Martelli at Saint Joseph’s. During his junior year in 2003-04, he logged a 19-5-5 line and helped the school to a 27-0 regular-season record and an Elite Eight berth. For his efforts, he was named a third-team All-American.
West went on to play for four different NBA teams from 2004 to 2012. His best years may have come with the Cleveland Cavaliers, with whom he averaged 10.3 points, 3.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds per contest over three seasons.
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