What you wonder when you hear Chris Herren speak is how can a room filled with 1500 people be so completely still?  For nearly two hours there is not a sound from the crowd, other than an occasional gasp or sniffle.

This was the case when Herren spoke at Mount Olive High School recently.

In the eyes of thousands of kids, Chris Herren was once living the ultimate dream. As an NBA superstar, Herren was living the life to which every young athlete aspires. But for four years, Herren’s life became an unimaginable nightmare.

Stepping onto the campus of Boston College as a highly recruited freshman, 18 year-old Chris Herren was exposed to things he had never seen before. “Just my third week at BC, I walk into my dorm to see my roommate and his friend bumping lines of cocaine off of his desk… I did my first line of cocaine that night, and I was hooked.”

Herren was quickly thrown out of Boston College after his third failed drug test in his freshman year. He had become addicted to cocaine, and he could not turn back. Herren was then given a chance at Fresno State, where he played his sophomore and junior year, and became one of the top players in the country.

After just one year with Denver Nuggets, Herren was traded to the Boston Celtics, where he would play just five minutes away from his hometown, Fall River, Massachusetts. In Fall River, Herren had been a public icon since he was 14. Being traded to a team so close to your hometown would seem like a dream come true, yet Herren now considers it the worst thing that ever happened to him.

When Herren returned home, he was introduced to oxycodone, a new and powerful pill that his hometown friends were taking.  He was immediately hooked. His addiction to oxycodone soon evolved into an addiction to heroin.

For eight years, Herren battled addiction. He says that at his worst, he spent over $20,000 a month on drugs.  He committed seven felonies. In 2006, after returning home from playing overseas, Herren overdosed on heroin, and crashed his car into a utility pole. According to the paramedics called to the scene, Herren was actually “dead” for 30 seconds.

Today Herren goes across the country, talking to high school students, recovering addicts, U.S soldiers, college and professional athletes, as a part of his mission: “Project Purple.” According to Herren, the goal of “Project Purple” is to tell his story to others, in order to give them guidance and hope. He does not consider himself a motivational speaker. Herren tells his nightmare so that no one will ever have to relive it.

Herren’s main goal is to warn high school students about day one. Day one, he tells the high school students who come to hear him speak, involves drinking beer and smoking weed at a small house party in their home town.

Three years ago, ESPN featured Herren in a two hour-long film on his story, to help raise awareness of drug addiction. He has now been sober for almost six years; the man who once inspired students with his basketball skills is now an inspiration for a completely different reason.