Former NBA player Delonte West arrested, jailed in Virginia

Former NBA guard Delonte West was arrested on misdemeanor charges for violating the conditions of his release and resisting arrest in Virginia on Thursday morning, Fairfax County police confirmed to The Athletic.

West, 40, was jailed at the Fairfax County Detention Center on Thursday and released later that day after posting a $2,000 bond, Fairfax County police said. His arraignment was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. local time Friday.

Fairfax County police said they spotted West around 1 a.m. in Groveton, Va., and tried to serve West a warrant, but a chase on foot followed. The officers lost sight of West before eventually finding him unresponsive.

Officers then administered Narcan — a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse — to West. The Narcan didn’t have the desired effect after the initial administration and West was transported to a local hospital, where he was again given Narcan, with its desired outcome taking effect, police said.

West was released from the hospital and transported to the Fairfax County Detention Center.

West, a 2004 first-round draft pick by the Boston Celtics, has struggled with mental illness. He went public with his bipolar diagnosis in 2008. Many within the basketball community — like Mark Cuban and former St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli — have tried to help West.

In January 2020, Cuban paid to send West to the Rebound Institute, an outdoor therapy clinic created by former NBA player Jayson Williams, who’s had his own struggles with substance abuse. West wound up leaving and nine months later, a video surfaced of him panhandling in Dallas. Cuban drove to the video location and picked him up, again sending him to Rebound.

Less than a year after leaving Rebound — in October 2021 — West was arrested in Florida.

“It’s just, disappointing is what it is. Or frustrating, I guess,” Cuban told The Athletic in 2023. “Delonte sabotages himself. … I don’t know what else to say. It is what it is. I tried.”

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West played eight seasons in the NBA with the Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks. He averaged 9.7 points and 3.6 assists per game during his NBA career. He last played for the Mavericks in 2012, when West was twice suspended for conduct detrimental to the team. West tried to find playing time overseas and in the G League, but that search ended in 2015.

Before entering the NBA, West starred alongside teammate Jameer Nelson at St. Joseph’s, where the two led the Hawks to an undefeated regular season (27-0) and into the Elite Eight in 2003-04.

(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)