Thursday, December 15, 2011

Unguarded

Chris Herren was the pride of Fall River, Massachusetts. The finest basketball player to ever come out of the small town, Chris went to play college ball and fulfill his dream of playing for the Boston Celtics. Just beneath the surface however, he was harboring his terrible secret that he was a drug addict, a problem that escalated throughout his career until he found himself having to be resuscitated in Dunkin' Donuts parking lot following a heroin overdose. In ESPN films "Unguarded", Herron tells his harrowing story of paradise lost and the rocky road to recovery. Listening to Herron's brutal honesty as he relays his horrors at group therapy, you can see the good that will result from his methods and personality. The film on the other hand needs a better treatment and while watching "Unguarded" I was strangely reminded of "An Inconvenient Truth" in that essentially all the ends up being is nothing more than a filmed lecture.