DENVER -- Chris Herren answered hundreds of questions about his struggles with alcohol and cocaine abuse before the NBA draft, but he turned into the interrogator when he met John Lucas.

"I've been clean for two years, and I'm trying to turn my life around," Herren told the Denver Nuggets assistant coach at a Chicago pre-draft camp.

"When are people going to stop asking me about it?' "

	Chris Herren has overcome a lot to make it to the NBA.

That was a no-brainer for Lucas.

"Never," he said.

Lucas is a bona fide expert on substance abuse and professional athletes; in fact, he wrote the book on it. His biography, "Winning One Day at a Time," describes in chilling detail his long fall, which ended in ruin when he was found wandering a Houston street, dazed and shoeless.

Lucas, the first point guard ever picked first in the NBA draft out of Maryland in 1976, also wrote the guidelines for the NBA on drug-treatment and aftercare programs. He purchased a United States Basketball League team in 1992 and stocked it exclusively with rehabilitation grads. Cocaine use dropped so much that Lucas could no longer field a team by the mid-90s.

Because of Lucas' pioneering work, 12-step recovery programs are now as routine as box scores in pro sports, one of the reasons Herren announced, "I'm the happiest man on the face of the Earth," after the Nuggets grabbed him with the 33rd pick in Wednesday night's draft.

"From a basketball standpoint, he played the same position I did," said Lucas, who played for the Houston Rockets, and later was head coach of the San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers. "Off the basketball court, I know some of the issues he'll have to deal with. I've traveled that road of recovery beginning 13 years ago. So I can try to guide him through what's going to be in front of him; the pitfalls and problems a rookie would have.

"I come straight at Chris. I don't come left or right. I come with straight honesty. That's what he really understands.

"He asked me, `How long will I go through this?' I told him he should embrace, rather than feel a sense of disgrace. I told him, `The reality is, you didn't get what you really deserved. You're not dead."'

Herren came close. In Fall River, Mass., his drinking and fighting were part of the town's fabric.

"It's a tough type of city," Herren recalled recently. "Not a city where you reach for a weapon; it's old time. You throw your hands up. My brother owns the bar, "Lizzie's," and I walk in and see a 60-year-old guy having a fight with another 60-year-old guy."

But Herren's problems began to overwhelm him during his freshman year at Boston College. After bombing out there, he transferred to Fresno State, known as Second State U because of coach Jerry Tarkanian's willingness to take on problem players.

It didn't take long for Herren to make his mark.

His mug shot appeared on the front page of a Fresno paper after he got involved in a slugging match outside a college bar.

60 Minutes and Fox Sports aired documentaries on the Fresno State program that cast Herren in a particularly poor light. But 19 months ago, he checked into a rehabilitation center in Salt Lake City, and checked out, he says, a different man. He also married and became a father.

In time, Lucas believes Herren's problems could become an asset for the Nuggets. During a pre-draft workout in Golden, Herren scolded another player for lax defense. That reminded Lucas of, well, John Lucas.

"Because of what he's gone through, he has no fear," Lucas said. "He has a voice, he has energy. He brings some juice to the team.

"We don't have that (in the backcourt). No one wants to step on anyone else toes. You don't have to worry about saying the wrong things to him, because he's seen so much. He lets it roll of his back. He's not temperamental We need that. The other guys will listen to him if he becomes an impact player. The question is whether he'll become an impact player."

Herren believes he can become that type of player, especially with Lucas in his corner.

"Chris sees that John prospered after his problems," said Herren's wife, Heather. "He's proved how far people can come when you give them a second chance. That means a lot to both of us."