Moving on...

Early this week I interviewed Kevin Mackey, the former Cleveland State and minor league basketball coach. He's now a scout with the NBA's Indiana Pacers.

I asked him about his now famous fall from grace and how he got back.

If you remember, in 1990 he was busted for drugs and fired as the coach at C-State. Its pretty hard to keep a job working with young adults after you were nabbed out side a crack house drunk and with cocaine in your system.

Some people would live in shame, would go into hiding and just refuse to move ahead.

He talked about living a double life. Talked about playing the game as a father and coach. Talked about being addicted and finally realizing he hit rock bottom. His life was a living hell.

In the interview he said, "it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth losing everything because of his addictive behavior. No fancy jibber jabber. No buzz words. Just realization that he was out of control.

"If you are lucky you will be arrested, if you aren't lucky you'll be dead," he said. "I had to find something to replace it with. I had to find something better."

You see we all have an addictive behavior. Some its just like Mackey, its drugs or alcohol, some of us its work, some of its bad relationships or casual sex. But we all have a behavior that could destroy us. A crutch that we lean on to keep from walking on our own two feet.

I asked Mackey if he deals with the shame. He said he did, but had to remember, that when he dealt with the problem, it was in the past. He keeps that problem in the past.

What do you have in your past that you keep digging up?

What do you have that when the going gets tough you go to?

Is it making you better, or just keeping you from accepting responsiblity and helping you escape reality?

What have you filled your life with that's better than your addiction?

You can't move on until you find it.



If you want to hear part of the interview with Kevin Mackey click here -

click here for the interview