From Pro Basketball Coach to Rock Bottom: Travis Blakeley's Story of Gospel-Centered Recovery and Restoration

About this episode

Travis Blakeley shares his journey from a successful basketball career to battling alcohol addiction and finding recovery through faith.

“In success, I sought to self-medicate. In failure, I sought to self-medicate.” From the outside, Travis Blakeley had the kind of life many people would envy. He grew up in an affluent area of Dallas, attended a prestigious school, followed Jesus, worked in professional basketball as a coach, executive, and broadcaster, and built the picture-perfect life in the suburbs with his wife and children. But underneath the success was a growing alcohol addiction that had quietly attached itself to nearly every area of his life. But as Travis explains in this episode, alcohol was never really the root issue. What began with trauma and escapism eventually turned into doing things he said he'd never do, manipulation, secrecy, and desperation. He drank before basketball games. He got drunk while doing television broadcasts. He hid vodka in ponds behind his house. He walked miles on crutches to buy booze before 7 a.m. And eventually, after years of avoiding consequences and convincing himself he still had control, he found himself standing on a bridge overlooking a Texas highway contemplating how to end it all. What makes this conversation especially powerful to me is that Travis…

People in this episode

Host: Jon Seidl

Guest: Travis Blakeley

Topics covered

• alcohol addiction
• recovery
• mental health
• personal story
• faith
• trauma

Keywords

• alcohol addiction
• recovery
• basketball coach
• faith
• mental health
• personal story
• trauma

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Dallas, Texas

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