New York County partners with ex-NBA star Jayson Williams to help addicts get truck driving jobs

Nassau County has partnered with former NBA star Jayson Williams to help those struggling with drug addiction get their commercial driver’s licenses and secure the high-paying truck driving jobs we’ve been waiting for keep them on the right path.

The new program “checks a lot of boxes to make sure people are healthy,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said at a news conference Wednesday morning in Mineola, announcing the partnership with the Williams, Rebound.

County officials say the joint program, which will be funded in part by $200,000 from opioid lawsuit settlements, will give downtrodden, formerly addicted people a hand and help them turn their lives around. the correct direction.

“The program is you come in, you take a drug test and you meet with over 40 different carriers because there are 800,000 jobs needed in the tractor trailer industry right now,” Williams said.

“So you get a job right when you walk in. All you have to do is finish the program successfully and you’re done. And at that point, you’re making a starting salary of $65,000 a year.”

This will give them a solid salary, benefits and keep them busy, which will hopefully prevent recidivism, Blakeman added.

“It keeps them productive, it gives them self-esteem, it gives them a sense of purpose,” he said. “They wake up in the morning and they have something to do.”

“We have people coming out of prisons and jails across the United States, and if they don’t have productive employment, they’re going to go back to a life of crime,” he continued. “This … will give people a second chance to lead productive lives.”

Williams is no stranger to second chances.

The 56-year-old former NBA star, who spent most of his 11 seasons with the then-New Jersey Nets, often found trouble in his personal life and served a 27-month sentence for the shooting accident in 2002 to his limousine driver, Costas. Chistophi.

He also had other, smaller brushes with the law, including an alleged 2009 suicide attempt in New York City, a bar fight in North Carolina, allegations that he fatally shot his Rottweiler after losing a bet, and a drunk driving accident that put him in Rikers. Island for almost a year.

He also pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in 2007 and struggled with alcohol and prescription drug addiction; he was finally forced into rehabilitation by his friends Charles Oakley, the legendary forward of the New York Knicks, and Curtis Martin, the famous runner of the New York Jets, according to The Palm Beach Post.

“It had no purpose,” Williams said. “It was like a ship without a rudder. No one would give me a chance to go back to television or do the things I wanted to do. I ballooned up to about 316 pounds. My life was just a mess.”

He has since recovered and started Rebound with the intention of helping others.

On Wednesday, Williams said he had been trucking all his life — his father drove tractor-trailers and sometimes rode them.

“We’d catch from Elizabeth, New Jersey, throw Budweiser down, and then pull the shrimp out,” he said. “So I’ve been in this industry for a long time. It’s a passion of mine.”

Getting ex-addicts away from drugs and into trucks is a “perfect mix” that will give those in recovery “a chance to get together and see some of the world,” he added.

“They just want a job,” Williams continued. “You give a man a job, you give him hope, he has self-esteem and self-worth, and he can go out into this world and change it. This would help recidivism. You know, it really does.”

Blakeman echoed that, saying helping those in need is “what government should be about.”

“It’s not a Republican thing. It’s not a Democrat thing,” he said. “It’s about helping people. We have an opioid crisis in this country. We need to get serious about helping people, and I think the opioid funds we’re devoting today will be put to good use.”

“We are very, very honored that you chose Nassau County to start this program.”