Hearing the voice inside
Even if Lance Allred's short tenure with the Cavaliers ends on Thursday, he has to be considered a success story. Considering all he went through to get to the NBA, no one can be unmoved by what he has accomplished.
"He's got to be an inspiration," Cavs coach Mike Brown said before the team left for tonight's game at Charlotte.
Allred, the 6-11 center from Weber State, is legally deaf and is believed to be the first such player in the NBA. He also has battled obsessive-compulsive disorder.
"For him to be where he is . . . that's a remarkable accomplishment," Brown said.
Allred, 27, is finishing up the second of two 10-day contracts. When it expires on Thursday, the Cavs must either sign him for the rest of the season or release him. Although Brown loves almost everything about Allred, the coach declined to say whether the rookie would stick.
But even if his chances are only 50-50, Allred has beaten much worse odds. He has been fighting since the day he was born -- literally.
"I was born almost dead," said Allred, who was born with Rh disease, caused by an incompatibility between the blood of a mother and her baby. After multiple blood transfusions and weeks in an incubator, he recovered enough to go home and join his brother and three sisters.
But his parents, both of whom are educators, noticed their youngest child wasn't developing as the others had. At the age of 2, his hearing loss was discovered, and he was fitted with hearing aids. The Rh disease had led to Allred losing 75 percent of his hearing.
When he was 7, his fundamentalist Mormon family moved from Montana to Salt Lake City. Six years later, his family split from the polygamist group and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
There were many other changes as well. It was the first time Allred became aware of his obsessive tendencies, which would lock in on a problem or question and wrestle with it endlessly. Fortunately, though, he also had a growth spurt from 5-8 to 6-4 in eighth grade. At that height, he was a natural for basketball, and he threw himself into the game.
"Basketball became an outlet for me," said Allred, who reads lips and body language to help him succeed on the court. "I was able to channel my obsessive phobias into basketball and obsess about missed shots or a bad play. I always knew I was very intense. My teammates throughout the years would say, 'Lance, dude, just relax.' But I demanded perfection of myself. That's what drove me to get better and better."
His coach at East High School in Salt Lake City, Kerry Rupp, saw great potential in Allred and devised a rigorous workout routine for the raw young player. It involved being at school at 6 a.m. most days.
His mother, Tana, swears she never had to get him up once, and Rupp, now the head coach at Louisiana Tech, said Allred never missed a session. As a result, he developed into a good player and was highly recruited by the time he was a junior. He dreamed of going to the University of Utah, four blocks away, where the Utes were coming off their first trip to the Final Four.
When coach Rick Majerus offered him a scholarship, it was a dream come true, but then it turned into a nightmare. One day at practice his sophomore year, Majerus turned on him, telling Allred he was using his hearing loss as an excuse, calling him "a disgrace to cripples."
Although other players and a staff member later confirmed the story to reporters in Utah, Majerus denied the accusation. He did not return a phone call seeking comment for this story.
Allred transferred to Weber State the next season. But he had to sit out a year, and without basketball to focus on, his obsessive-compulsive tendencies came to the forefront. He found he could not quiet his mind. Eventually, he was diagnosed and began a course of therapy and medication to help him cope with the disorder.
His basketball career blossomed, and he averaged 17.7 points and 12 rebounds as a senior during the 2004-05 season. He was named to the All-Big Sky Conference and became an academic All-American. Undrafted by an NBA team, he began a peripatetic basketball journey starting in Turkey, where he didn't always get paid, winding his way through France and Spain. Eventually, he wound up with the Idaho Stampede in the NBA Development League for the 2006-07 season.
There were any number of times he thought about quitting - when his coach in Spain tried to blame him for the team's ills, when he had to spend $30,000 of his own money on knee surgery, when he found himself at the end of the bench in Idaho, worried enough about his future that he developed ulcers. Allred left the team briefly and stayed with his parents.
So why not quit?
"Knowing myself well enough and how obsessive I get, I knew that when I'm 45, I could look back and say, 'What if?' " he said. "I wanted to make sure I left no stone unturned and could be able to say I did the best I possibly could.
"I hope I can give some people hope that no matter what cards are given to you in life, you decide what to do with them. You only have one life. Why not make the best of it? Whether you fail or succeed is not the important thing. It's whether you try."
Eventually, he returned to Idaho. A week later, he was a starter averaging 10.1 points and 5.7 rebounds. This season, he started all 38 games he played in, averaged 16.2 points and 10 rebounds, became a D-League All-Star and won the H.O.R.S.E. competition during the league's All-Star weekend.
The Cavs signed him to his first 10-day contract on March 13 and the second on March 24. He has played just one minute in two games. Still, when he stepped onto the court in Washington on March 13 and began to run through his pre-game affirmations, he came to a realization.
"I always say, 'I will be the best basketball player I can be. I will play in the NBA,' " he said. "Then I realized, 'I am in the NBA.' It was quite a moment."
It was quite a moment for those who care about him, too. His parents were able to come to Cleveland to see a game, and Rupp has been watching from afar - and beaming.
"That kid has overcome what you would think are insurmountable odds," Rupp said. "It's a tribute to him and everything he's overcome. It's remarkable. He's a guy who has inspired me and is really my hero for a lot of things he's been able to accomplish in his life. That's a motivation for me, and I'll use it as motivation for my team. He's never given up, never surrendered. Even though he's hit some obstacles, he has always picked himself back up and believed he could achieve this dream."
If the NBA dream lasts only 20 days, Allred will be disappointed - but still proud.
"I'll be grateful for the opportunity," he said. "It was a very positive experience. But I will be sad to go."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
mschmitt@plaind.com, 
216-999-4668
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