From NBA All-Star To Starbucks Barista: Vin Baker's Journey To Sobriety

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But three years later, Seattle dealt Baker to Boston, where he underwent a physical. The doctor employed by the Celtics found signs of liver damage associated with alcoholism. "And, of course, being in the state I was, I lied and said, 'No, there’s no issues, and I’m not drinking as much as you guys may think,'" Baker recalls. Baker says the doctor told him, "Of course, if you play better, this all goes away." Baker also recalls that in 2003, two men hired by the league to surprise him with random drug tests told him they’d warn him about when the tests were coming if he’d pay each of them $50,000. He thought about it. In any case, he didn’t play better. By then he was constantly drunk or hungover. He became a part-timer the Celtics could do without. Eventually he began drinking Listerine, figuring nobody would complain about the odor.

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"We met. And we came up with a plan. And we exercised that plan, and part of the plan was to make caramel macchiatos and serve coffee at Starbucks." Vin Baker went into the management training program. That meant he showed up dependably. And, as with his job in pro basketball, he put on a uniform. "To actually grab the green apron — that was a little bit short, by the way — grab the green apron and throw it on and then walk out, it was surreal," Baker says. "Surreal," as in getting up at 3:45 a.m. to open the store. And, at least initially, Baker didn’t even like the taste of coffee. But he handled the job. "From the work perspective, it wasn’t that difficult. Because I don’t mind working," Baker says. "But, obviously, the story behind it was difficult some days, but I ultimately said, 'This is all for the best.'" "Do you remember what the figure was on your first paycheck from Starbucks?" I ask. "I don’t. Um, I don’t remember," he says with a chuckle. "I can tell you this: same signature from Howard, but it wasn’t the same amount as I got when I worked for him in Seattle. I can tell you that much."

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Vin Baker can laugh now. He’s been in recovery for 6 1/2 years. And he’s not much inclined to look back at the nearly $100 million he lost. "I’m not going to be on the cover of Business Insider or Forbes any time soon, but that’s OK with me. Right? That’s OK with me," Baker says. "Because in the world of recovery, we don’t talk dollars and cents. We talk recovery, one day at a time. Win the day. So when I got the job at Starbucks as a store manager in training, it was the upswing. I was happy. I was ecstatic. "I came from a dark, dark place. And to be able to open a store up at 4:30 in the morning, 5:30 in the morning, and run a shift, and be responsible for a store is a big deal to a person in recovery. You know, it talks about responsibility. And so, it wasn’t $100 million to Starbucks. It was, 'Wow, I’m the store manager at Starbucks.' That’s how I felt when I went in there every day to work."

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