The Fall River native was a high school basketball star with a scholarship to Boston College and a promising future in professional basketball.

For Chris Herren, one line of cocaine changed everything.

"I'm never going to turn out to be a junkie," Herren recalled thinking while watching a presentation about drug use during his first week at Boston College. "I laughed, talked, [thinking] like, 'this doesn't pertain to me.'"

On a Friday afternoon before winter vacation, one might expect a room full of high school students to be noisy and chaotic. But on February 17, the Wareham High students sat quietly on the bleachers inside the school's gymnasium, their eyes transfixed on Herren.

The night after that anti-drug presentation, Herren returned to his room to find his roommate and a friend using cocaine.

Herren told himself he'd try it. Just once.

"At 18 years old, I grabbed that dollar bill and snorted my first line of cocaine," Herren told the students. "I had no idea it was going to take me 14 years to put down the dollar bill."

Herren's drug use got him kicked out of Boston College. He then moved on to Fresno State and was drafted to the Denver Nuggets.

After his first season with Denver, Herren -- still struggling with addiction -- had a cookout at his Fall RIver home. A high school friend introduced him to prescription painkiller Oxycontin. His addiction spiraled out of control.

After returning to Denver, Herren learned he'd been traded to the Boston Celtics -- his hometown team.

"It should have been the best day of my life," Herren told the students. "It was the worst."

Herren told the students about how he had his drug dealer wait for him in the parking lot outside the Garden so he could get a fix before practices and games. All he could think about was the pills.

After an injury ended his season with the Celtics, Herren moved overseas, playing for several teams before the drugs got the best of him. At 24 years old, he began shooting heroin.

Herren hit rock bottom. He spent tens of thousands of dollars on drugs, returned to the U.S., was homeless for a short time, and nearly lost his wife and children.

Finally, friends paid for him to attend a drug treatment center in New York. After taking a leave so he could see the birth of his youngest child, Herren relapsed.

He returned to New York and got his life together. He has been sober since August 1, 2008.

Now, Herren runs Hoop Dreams with Chris Herren, Inc., which trains and mentors basketball prospects throughout New England. He also travels throughout the country, sharing his story with young people.

The Scotty Monteiro Jr. Foundation helped offset the cost of the presentation, as well as another one at Wareham Middle School earlier in the week. Monteiro was shot and killed in 2009 at age 21 while trying to help a friend who was being robbed.

Monteiro was "always the peacekeeper," said Wendy Monteiro, his godmother. She told the students: "As most of you know, a lot of violence is caused by drugs."

Wareham Police School Resource Officer Karl Baptiste was "the driving force" in getting Herren to speak to the students, said Wareham High School Principal Scott Palladino. Herren also spoke to Wareham Middle School students earlier in the week.

"I hope that ... [my] story can get out to a kid and make him change his mind" about trying drugs, Herren said. And he always remembers what he was told once he got sober: "You can't keep what you have unless you give away what you have."