Chris Herren’s life took him from being a top basketball recruit to playing for his hometown Boston Celtics, before it all came crashing down because of opioid pills and heroin.

His tragic, remarkable story allowed him to speak to pro athletes and high school students around the country.But at Marian High School on Monday, he wasn’t there to talk about the man who inspired an ESPN documentary. He was there to talk about his own high school days. While Herren is best known for talking about the depths of his addiction, he said that there is too much emphasis placed on the “worst part” of addiction, and not the “first part.”The event was sponsored by Marian’s Students Against Destructive Decisions Club.In high school, Herren was a McDonalds’ All-American, the most prestigious honor a high school basketball player can receive.On Fridays, they would thrill crowds on the court. On Saturdays, they’d drink beer and smoke pot. He said the same things that drove him to drink and smoke eventually led to the addiction that derailed his career.“Out of the 15 kids on my high school basketball team, that thought we were super cool, that played in front of 4,000 people, that drank from red solo cups and smoked blunts in back seats, seven of us became heroin addicts,” he said.Herren said now he looks back and admires the kids from his school who were content just being themselves. He recalled how at the time, he did the opposite, instead judging and pressuring those students.“I always knew those kids were special. I just wish I told them,” he said.The event was sponsored by Mauch Chunk Pharmacy, Mauch Chunk Trust Company, as well as Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank, Silberline Mfg, Charles X Block and the Zlock family.The SADD students said that even though Herren is twice their age, he spoke about high school in a way that they could relate to.“The way he speaks, it relates to us and people of all ages. You don’t have to be his age to understand it,” sophomore Maggie Joseph said.Herren made it more relevant by bringing in heartbreaking stories from other schools where he has spoken.“It makes you think, you don’t know who is going through it,” senior Sara Osilka said.SADD students decorated the gym with a purple paper chain with a solemn meaning. It was made up of links that students put in representing the number of people they know who have struggled with drugs.The last time Herren visited Marian was five years ago. Since then, Tom Brady, Stephen Curry and countless top athletes have heard him speak. Now people are asking him how he handles his teenage children. He said luckily, he doesn’t have reason to believe they engage in destructive behavior.But if he did, he wouldn’t judge or scold, he said, he would just ask “why?”He’s been focused on that a lot since his recovery. He said he’s realized that the reason he became addicted to pills and overdosed four times was the same reason he drank as a high schooler — because he wasn’t happy with who he was.“I will always find it sad when a young kid crosses that bridge, breaks his promise he made to his mother, and loses the ability to be him or herself 24/7,” he said.