Dion Waiters had a rough season.
Most infamously, he overdosed on a gummy on a Heat team flight. Initial reporting said Waiters had a seizure when woken up. The incident was later described as a panic attack.
Waiters in The Players Tribune:
I go through depression, just like you. I go through anxiety, just like you. This last year and a half, I done been through it.
For me, depression is fake happiness. You lie to yourself. You hide things. You’re saying it’s all good — to your homies, to your family, to yourself. But it’s a lie. You don’t want to touch your phone. You don’t want to read what anybody is saying about you. Your body literally feels different. You’re just not you. Don’t matter how hard you are. Hard got nothing to do with it.
The plane incident in Miami? It’s on me. I own that. It was idiotic on my behalf — point-blank, period. What’s crazy is, my whole life I been a leader. I’m not a follower. Pat knows me. He knows I don’t do drugs. But sometimes when you’re going through dark times, you can fall trap to things you’d never do in your right mind.
I never had a seizure, though. Ask the doctors. Ask my Heat teammates. They can speak on it. For that b.s. to come out, it ain’t right.
Waiters has gone through a lot in his life, experiences he describes in his article. He probably deserves more empathy than he receives.
I’m not sure how knowing Waiters didn’t have a seizure re-contextualizes the overdose, though. That’s a small detail. To his credit, Waiters took responsibility for the flight incident overall.
Now with the Lakers, Waiters must improve his behavior. Hopefully, he has the internal dedication and external support to make that happen. This article definitely makes it sounds like he has the necessary perspective.
