Former St. Joe’s star Delonte West seen in disturbing viral videos

Two former mainstays from St. Joseph’s basketball team are speaking out after a video appearing to show former St. Joe’s and NBA player Delonte West being beaten up and placed in handcuffs on the street went viral on social media.

Former St. Joe’s standout Jameer Nelson, who played alongside West for three seasons, took to social media Monday night to urge restraint in sharing videos of West, which show the former NBA player disheveled and rambling incoherently about being approached by someone with a gun.

It’s unclear where the incident took place, but a street sign in one of the videos indicates it was near Washington, D.C., where West was born.

“Mental illness is something that a lot of people deal with and don’t even know it, until sometimes it’s too late,” Nelson wrote in a lengthy statement on Twitter, adding he has spoken to West several times over the past few months and hopes his former teammate can get the help he needs.

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Nelson’s comments were amplified by former St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli, who called the video of his former student “so very painful.”

West and Nelson played together at St. Joe’s during back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in 2003 and 2004, one of the greatest runs in Philadelphia college basketball history. West ultimately played eight seasons in the NBA on four different teams, most notably alongside LeBron James on the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.

But West has also openly struggled with mental illness, and was suspended for 10 games in 2010 after pleading guilty to gun charges.

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“My family are trying to get him the best professional help that’s out there, the best that they can afford,” Dmitri West, Delonte’s older brother, told the Daily Mail in 2016. “You can’t put this down to the basketball or money. He is in a great place, he has a beautiful son, a beautiful daughter and a wife that loves him and gives him tremendous support. But sometimes he has this illness that just comes upon him. This condition is like a cancer - it can affect anyone, rich or poor, regardless of whether you are an NBA player or a football player.”