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Waiters opens up about depression, plane incident

Michael Reaves / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Dion Waiters' four-year tenure with the Miami Heat ended in February after a tumultuous first several months of the season, including a reported panic attack on a team flight after he consumed a THC-infused edible.

Waiters was suspended 10 games without pay due to the incident - the longest of his three team-issued suspensions in 2019-20. While the veteran swingman accepts full responsibility, he links his lapse in judgment to experiencing depression and anxiety.

"I go through depression, just like you. I go through anxiety, just like you. This last year and a half, I done been through it," Waiters wrote for The Players' Tribune.

Waiters added, "The plane incident in Miami? It’s on me. I own that. It was idiotic on my behalf - point-blank, period. What's crazy is, my whole life I been a leader. I'm not a follower. Pat (Riley) knows me. He knows I don't do drugs. But sometimes when you're going through dark times, you can fall trap to things you'd never do in your right mind."

It was initially reported that Waiters had suffered a seizure after overdosing on the edibles, though Waiters asserts that element of the reports isn't true. The apparent details of the plane incident soon circulated to Waiters' family - including his 6-year-old son - which didn't sit well with him.

"Ask the doctors. Ask my Heat teammates. They can speak on it. For that B.S. to come out, it ain't right," Waiters wrote. "I made a mistake, but for someone to leak that, and for my family to hear it?"

Miami shipped Waiters to the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-team deal at the trade deadline. The Grizzlies waived the shooting guard three days after acquiring him.

In March, the Los Angeles Lakers inked Waiters to a deal for the remainder of the season. However, he didn't suit up for the club before the NBA suspended the 2019-20 campaign indefinitely.

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