OKLAHOMA CITY (Aug. 27, 2014) – Chris Herren remembers hearing, during his high school and college years, the speeches about the consequences of drug and alcohol addiction. His life eventually became a testament to the powers of those evils.

Sober now for more than six years, the 38-year-old Herren spoke for an hour Wednesday night to a rapt audience of Oklahoma Christian student-athletes, pleading with them not only not to repeat his mistakes, but to help teammates who might already be struggling.

"There's no difference between me and you, sitting in your seat tonight," said Herren, whose story was chronicled in the ESPN documentary "Unguarded" in 2011. "I was an 18-year-old kid with a dream."

Now – after overcoming addictions to alcohol, OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, crystal methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine, Herren said, "I go to bed every night and thank God for helping me stay sober."

OC Athletic Director Curtis Janz said Herren's presentation was one of the most powerful he's heard during his time at the university.

"He's just a regular guy who has an incredible story," Janz said. "Our student-athletes are blessed to hear him speak and hopefully they will take away lessons from what he shared."

Herren was a schoolboy star at Durfee High School in Fall River, Mass. He signed with Boston College, but broke his wrist in his first collegiate game and not long after was expelled from the university after failing three drug tests. It was as a freshman at BC that he first tried a line of cocaine and he soon was hooked.

"That one line," he said, "would take 14 years to walk away from."

He carried his addiction to Fresno State, where he finished his collegiate career, but played well enough there that the NBA's Denver Nuggets drafted him in 1999. After a mostly drug-free season under the watchful eye of teammates including Chauncey Billups, Herren returned home and again found addiction, this time to OxyContin.

He was traded to his hometown NBA team, the Boston Celtics, in 2000. He vividly recalls being so desperate for a high that – on the night he made his first start for the Celtics – he ran out into the streets outside the arena just minutes before tipoff, looking for his dealer's car. He was so worried about drugs he failed to enjoy a moment he'd dreamed of all his life, hearing his name announced as a starter for Boston.

"Not many people get a chance to live their dream," Herren said. "I worked my whole life to hear those words and I missed them because of one little yellow pill."

After one season with the Celtics, he began a pro basketball journey that took him to six different countries. By his final stop, in 2006 in Poland, the team he was with sent him home after just two months.

His addiction became so severe that he was broke and homeless for a time, sleeping behind a Dumpster at a convenience store. He almost died after he overdosed on heroin and started driving, crashing into a utility pole. (Paramedics told him he had, in fact, been dead for 30 seconds before he was revived.) During his 10 years of addiction, he was charged with seven felonies.

Herren eventually ended up at a drug rehabilitation facility in Rhinebeck, N.Y., his visit paid for by former NBA star Chris Mullin. After a month, Herrin received a day pass to see his youngest son's birth, but just a few hours later, he again sought out a drug dealer to get a fix. His wife, Heather, told him that she was tired of watching Herren break their kids' hearts over and over.

When he returned to the rehab facility, a counselor there told Herren to call his wife and tell her to tell their kids that he'd died in a car accident, so that his family could begin moving forward. Instead, Herren said he dropped to his knees and began praying. That was Aug. 1, 2008, and he's been sober ever since, "one day at a time."

He now travels the country, telling his story to audiences and letting them know they could end up like him if they're not careful. It all started, he said, by drinking alcohol out of a red Solo cup and smoking marijuana.

"Kids say, 'It's just weed.' Your whole life, you've wanted to play college sports," Herren told the student-athletes. "You work hard. You sacrifice. And you're going to jeopardize all that because of something we call 'just weed?' It's not just weed. … If you really felt good about yourself 24-7, there would be no need for drugs."

Herren said student-athletes who don't have problems with alcohol or drugs need to apply positive peer pressure on their teammates who do. He told of his addresses to football teams, at which players who have tested positive for drugs sit on the front row, while those who have not often sit in the back of the room.

"The guys (sitting) in the back are just as responsible as the guys sitting in the front," he said. "I ask the guys in the back, 'Why do you lift weights, why do you play in the heat, why take hits, why risk concussions, if you're going to let a couple of teammates smoke away your season? Why put in the hard work, if you're going to let a couple of teammates drink and smoke it all away? No way! That's a shame.

"Kids say weed is not a problem. Let me tell you, if you're smoking weed and you get drug tested, that's a problem, because you're risking what you've worked so hard for. Is a blunt or a hit more important than playing at Oklahoma Christian University? That's what that says and that's a problem."