Fall River native Chris Herren lived his dream of playing basketball for the Boston Celtics, then lost it to 15 years of drug addiction.  Now Herren works to educate students on the dangers of substance abuse.

On Wednesday morning, Herren spoke to the students of Old Rochester Regional High School on his struggles with addiction and the effects that bad decisions can have on the rest of your life, and on those around you.

“Very rarely do we get the opportunity for our entire school to get together. So right away you know it must be important,” said Principal Michael Devoll.

Sober since 2008, the 36-year-old Herren runs a basketball development company, which works with players both on and off the courts. Through Hoop Dreams with Chris Herren Inc., the former NBA star said his life is much more fulfilled with lecturing than it could have been if he was just another NBA success story.

“The sky’s the limit now,” he said. “I’ve worn Celtics jerseys, Denver Nuggets jerseys and they’ve never felt as good as it does to walk on my feet. For me, telling this story is much more important than an NBA story.”

“This is important to me because the most important thing I remember from my basketball career is sitting in an assembly in 1995 laughing and not paying attention to the guy talking about what I’m about to,” Herren said. “I wish I hadn’t because, from that point on, I lived a nightmare for 15 years.”

At Durfee High School in Fall River, Herren scored 2,073 career points, was named Gatorade New England Player of the Year 1993-94, Boston Globe Massachusetts Player of the Year 1992-93 and a member of the 1994 McDonald’s All American team. He was the central subject of Providence Journal columnist Bill Reynolds’ 1994 book on the Durfee High School team, “Fall River Dreams.”

Herren's descent into addiction began with drinking and smoking marijuana in high school, which then developed into cocaine use during his freshman year at Boston College. Four months into his basketball career with the school, Herren was thrown out for failing three drug tests.

Herren then went to play basketball for Fresno State in California, where he was told in his junior year that he was a first-round draft pick for the NBA.

After 28 days in rehab, he was drafted by the Denver Nuggets. During this time he developed an addiction to Oxycontin, which followed him to the Boston Celtics in 2000.

Herren said he received a call from Celtics coach Rick Pitino, who told him: “Congratulations! Your dream has come true -- you’re a Boston Celtic.”

During his third game with the Celtics, Herren said he needed Oxycontin just to function on the court.

“I needed my 80 mg to play against Michael Jordan and the Washington Wizards,” he said. “So here you have me, 10 minutes before game time, in full Celtics uniform, running through the streets of Boston in the rain to get my 80.”

A shoulder injury ended his career with the Celtics. Herren then took his family to Italy to play basketball, but quit after developing a heroin addiction. Herren played for several teams in the U.S. and in Europe, all of which ended when the drugs ran out.

Following a suicide attempt and not wanting to lose his wife and three kids, Herren decided to get off drugs. He has been sober since August 2008.

Old Rochester Students reacted to what Herren had to say.

“I think it was great,” said sophomore Carly Pelissier. “You can see by everyone’s faces here that the talk touched a lot of people.”

“It was clearly moving,” said sophomore Alexandra Campbell. “It made me think about how much people go through.”

With Reynolds, Herren wrote of his account with substance abuse in the 2011 memoir “Basketball Junkie.” Herren was also featured in the 2011 ESPN documentary “Unguarded.”