"I needed something to calm me down" - Richard Dumas admits he used to drink a six pack of beers before every game originally appeared on Basketball Network .
Behind every player, there's a battle being fought, one that rarely makes its way to the public eye. The cameras capture the points, the dunks, the celebrations, but they don't even scratch the surface of what's going on when the lights are off.
For some guys, the pressure of the NBA becomes fuel. For others, it's a weight they just can't fully shake. Richard Dumas fell into that second category, a player with undeniable talent whose career left everyone wondering what could have been.
The former Phoenix Suns forward flashed star potential in his short time in the league, but behind the curtain there was a different story being written. And no matter how hard he tried to fight it, Dumas couldn't escape it.
Richard entered the NBA as a second-round pick in 1991, but his game quickly outshone his draft position. As a rookie in 1992-93, he averaged 15.8 points and 4.6 rebounds, earned a spot on the All-Rookie First Team and helped the Suns reach the NBA Finals. It was the kind of debut that had people penciling him in as a long-term piece for a contender.
But the promise unraveled as quickly as it came together. Suspensions for substance abuse violations kept him off the floor, and what could have been a decade-long career turned into just three seasons in the league. The NBA only saw flashes, a 6'7" forward with a rare mix of athleticism, skill and fearlessness, but never the complete picture of what Dumas could have been. And as he would later explain, the struggle wasn't about the game itself. It was everything around it.
"To me, I always took basketball the same way. I never got too excited or overwhelmed about it. Because if you prepare yourself, like I always did, you have the confidence to go out there and play. I wasn't nervous," Dumas said , reflecting on his short and turbulent time in the league.
"It's just, the only thing about me is, as it has come up later on, I suffered from mental illness where I can't deal with crowds and stuff like that. They got me on medication now, but they didn't have medication and stuff back then. I couldn't deal with all that stuff," he continued. "A lot of people don't know I had a six pack before every game… I needed something to calm me down."
The very things that define NBA basketball, the bright lights, the packed arenas, the noise of thousands of fans, those were the same things Dumas couldn't stomach. It wasn't about nerves or a lack of competitiveness. It was mental, and it was deeply personal. And in an era when mental health in sports wasn't part of the conversation, Dumas was left to cope however he could, turning to drugs and alcohol in an attempt to make the unbearable bearable.
He tried to manage the chaos in the only ways available to him, leaning on alcohol before games and putting on a front of composure that masked the storm inside. It wasn't about embracing the moment or thriving under the spotlight — it was about surviving it, about simply finding a way to get through 48 minutes in an environment that felt impossible to handle. But those methods came at a cost. They only compounded his struggles, cutting short what could have been a remarkable career and leaving behind the lasting question of just how good the Oklahoma native might have been if those battles hadn't consumed him.
Even though he might not be the first name people mention in the "what-if" category, he belongs in the conversation, somewhere after those whose careers were cut short by injuries. Because in a way, what Dumas was dealing with was an injury too, just one that nobody could see.
Sometimes, those hurt even more than a sprained ankle or a sore muscle... and Dumas knows it all too well.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 1, 2025, where it first appeared.
