Life and Death of Roja Tarpli

"Mr. Tarpley, you are not a drug addict ... you are an alcoholic. You should be able to drink drugs longer," said one doctor in Dallas, explaining to Roy what he really is suffering from. Tarpley pulled his shirt off and looked at the gray man puzzled, who in a few sentences explained his whole life to him ...

"You and only you can deal with this. We will help you as much as we can, but without your true desire everything will be in vain."

Roy came to the NBA as part of that unfortunate draft class of '86, in which there was almost no player who did not sniff, bite or injected into a vein. Lena Biasa's heart exploded from an excessive dose of cocaine after the draft, Tarpley sustained something longer.

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They say that addiction is genetically predisposed, although no one can prove it to the full. Millions of dollars are spent in America to establish a link between the old one: "If your dad was an alcoholic, you're probably going to be," but too many factors are involved in all that a simple blood test would give any definitive result.

Everybody was helped by Tarplea, and in the end, everything was in vain.

Roy was not a depressing drunk, no, no ... Roy had that natural smile of a cheerful man without much concern in his life. He liked society, he was joking with everyone. He helped with money or presence wherever he could, but nobody could help him at the end of the day, and everyone, or almost everyone, tried it. Yes, he was such a good player that no one in the world of evil and envious men wanted Tarpley to fail.

Basketball was really a game for him. He started too late, he mostly did not know what to do or where to stand, but he was so naturally good, that there was no discussion at all about whether to be a player. Long arms, long legs. Roy ran like a whirlwind. Perhaps the fastest high player of his generation. Whatever he tried on the field, he remained in the muscles.

"Let me try the shot to the distance ....". Jump? Dell Harris is still kidding that Tarpley was the best jumper in the NBA after Wilt !? In his second NBA season, Tarpley stamped 20-20 games as if he was walking through the park. Simply, there was no force, no pain in his game. Everything seemed easy, as the most normal thing in the world. Unfortunately, he did so, so he was drugged.

Still at the University of Michigan he fell on cocaine and marijuana twice. Nobody could even count the blank beer cans. NBA scouts Michigan narrated an ideal story, as long as Dallas Mavsey did not seriously play. They recognized that Tarpley had problems.

"No problem," they said in Dallas, "We'll take care of him." How to take care when at that time in the NBA locker room the most normal thing was to see two cards of cold beers for players and a professional staff after a tough game ...

Tarpley and his ease of movement arrived at Schrempf, Blackman, Derek Harper, Sam Perkins and Mark Aguirre. While Dirk Nowitzki did not stand, it was the best team in the history of Dallas. Incredible amount of universality, speed, basketball knowledge.

They played the finals of the West and lost to Lakers, the terrible Lakers in seven games. Tarpley? 13 points and 12 rebounds average, and the award for the best sixth league player. In the second season. He was 23 years old. Sam Perkins and Derek Harper at 25, Detlef Schrempf 24. Blackman and Aguierre after 28 ... The sky was the limit. In fact - not. They danced only one summer.

The 81 matches, played by Roy Tarpley in 1988, remain the highest number of games he played in an NBA season. A year later, he earned a three-year suspension for three consecutive drunken driving. He did not remember calling someone else or taxi.

Mavis really tried everything. Send him to rehabilitation. He was constantly visited by assistant coaches, teammates. In vain.

How to monitor someone who has excess money and free time for 24 hours? Within nine months he was arrested three times for driving in drunken state and got a shot ticket from the strongest league in the world. Best sixth man, since all star. Goodbye.

Like in a comedy, Will Farrell ended up in Miami Tropics, where aunt bikinis announce the start of the quarter and where some suspicious guy draws the bears at half time. Then Aris's call came. Greece with a surplus of money for basketball and competition where both Mortus drunken Tarpley can score 20 points and make 18 rebounds was an ideal scenario. In Greece, nobody cares that Roy was being divorced from alcohol and drugs as long as he could produce on the ground. And he produced ... Aris had already been left without Galis that year, and the famous and controversial coach Janis Joanidis moved to the richer ends.

Cash Arisa has been replaced by Olympiacos. Tarpley was the best jumper of the Greek League this year with ... watch now 17.2 rebounds on average. It is doubtful whether any match played solitary that year. It is certain that the hangman was at all. Drink a bottle of whiskey and 40-50 beers for the night and then have 30 points and 25 rebounds? No problem for Roy.

Opponent players refused to keep him safe because his entire body was based on alcohol, he routinely drank in the dressing room and played as a watch. For that league it was simply too good in any condition. And the conditions were mostly close to hallucinations. Even today, regardless of all the foreigners who have defected through Greece, most coaches and journalists say that there was no better Tarpie.

For all time, Roy has made 32 points, 24 rebounds, 8 blocks, 6 assists and 6 stolen balls in the first game of the Greek League in 22 minutes. You can imagine what was worn in a sleeveless shirt and made the sunglasses the night before the game ...

Arriving in Olympiacos, Tarpley reached a double crown in Greece. He sent the children to take video tapes. After a drink he mostly went alone. That Olympiacos was made to win the title of the European champion. They sang in the finals. Corny Thompson. Troika. You know the story already ... The story looked after Roy Tarpley. he got another chance. The one that most do not get. The NBA pardoned him. Dallas remembered his first love. In the summer of 1994, then the 30-year-old Tarpley signed a 6-year contract worth $ 20 million. In one hand he had 20 million, in another alcohol and drugs. He held up 50 games. He fell back to control again and he was again frustrated. This time without any possibility of being pardoned.

He wandered around Greece, Cyprus and China. He was arrested for burning his girlfriend on a stomach with a hot iron. Yes, you read well. The marriage ended with a final victory.

In the last attempt to get some kind of love, Tarpley began to train again in order to return to the NBA. With 45 years on the back it was too much of him. Then he sued 5-6 years ago Dallas and NBA because they defended the disabled man to "do his job". He called his addiction a handicap. He was probably right. Mark Cuban was pitied and paid off in an out-of-court settlement ...

The news of his death arrived Saturday night. According to information from Arlington, where he was admitted to the hospital, his liver was not sustained. Years of drugs, alcohol and physical effort have done their ... Behind one of the most talented players of their generation remained compilations of moves made by fans of Dallas and Olympiacos. The rest is just 3,500 points in the NBA, where he was supposed to spend his entire career, not to run in Michigan Mayhem and similar stations.

His coach, Bill Frieder, felt that Tarpley would be one of the best ever. For a brief moment it seemed to be right, but when $ 20 million is not enough reason to leave a bottle ...

In all sports there are players who are wondering if it could have been different. We never find out for most of the answers. Tarpley's story is, unfortunately, almost usual. What is unusual is that such a good player makes so little ...