Even though former NBA player Delonte West hasn't played a single second of basketball in 2016, he has made headlines on several occasions so far this year as a result of some strange behavior. In January, he allegedly called his former teammate LeBron James out in a post that he put up on Instagram. In February, he was spotted walking around in Houston without any shoes on looking confused. And shortly after that, a clip of West behaving erratically at a strip mall and youth basketball game went viral. At the time, his brother Dmitri Jr. explained that West is "not crazy" and "not on drugs," despite speculation surrounding his well-being, but West continues to land in the news for bizarre reasons.
It looks like that trend is, unfortunately, going to continue. On Sunday, West was spotted walking down a street in Temple Hills, Md., and according to Twitter user @JJ_RipCuba, he was begging people for change. In a tweet that he has since deleted, @JJ_RipCuba wrote, "Let's Pray for Delonte West Y'all He Bipolar And On St. Barnabas Road Bumming Smh He Ain't Taking His Medicine" and included the photo you see above. @JJ_RipCuba also claimed West walked up to his car:
The photo of West went viral a short time later with many people jumping to the conclusion that West is either homeless or not taking the medications that he takes to deal with his bipolar disorder. Social media was filled with tweets like these:
It sounds like the photo may not tell the whole story, though. Media Takeout tracked West down for a statement, and while he didn't go into any great detail with regards to what he was doing on Sunday, he tried to debunk the rumors about him being homeless and/or off his medications and said that he was actually just helping a homeless man out when he was seen asking people for change.
"I was helping a homeless man in my neighborhood that’s paralyzed from [the] neck down," he told MTO. "I parked my car and got out to help because it was 90 degree weather and I was feeling blessed at the moment for just having legs."
Hopefully West's side of the story is true. We have reached out to a representative for West to try and verify his statement. In the meantime, @JJ_RipCuba has taken down his original tweet and replaced it with this one:
It's just another wrinkle in West's bizarre post-NBA life.
