Right off the bat, former NBA player Craig Ehlo laid it out bluntly for 140 young children and teenagers at the Rise Above basketball clinic on Monday.

On the basketball gym floor at Benewah Medical and Wellness Center in Plummer, he spoke about fighting drug addiction, soon after he was finished as an assistant coach at Eastern Washington University. He was prescribed hydrocodone following back surgery, and in 2013 was taking nearly a dozen a day. Ehlo’s son, Austin, was a student at Eastern Washington University at the time. His other adult children are Erica and Gavin.

Now 54, with the long blond hair that he was known for in his NBA playing days with Houston, Cleveland, Atlanta and Seattle in 1996-97 now cut short, he talked about the ramifications of his addiction. The 14-year NBA veteran almost looks like he could at least try to play right now — he’s played in games in the annual Hoopfest 3-on-3 tournament in Spokane, where he lives — as he looked fit and thin on his 6-foot-8 frame. He will turn 55 on Aug. 11.

Now living life with his wife, Jani, things were not always perfect in their lives.

“I almost lost my family, I almost lost my kids and I almost lost the life that was in front of me because of addiction,” Ehlo told a group of children at the clinic. “Listen to our coaches to stay away from drugs, from alcohol. If you have problems, don’t be afraid to ask. I was afraid to ask, but when I did ask, I got help. You lose a lot of things you earn, because addiction is not your friend. I had a problem with back surgeries (in 2003 and 2007) and I got hooked on prescription drugs. Now before that, I was hooked on playing basketball.”

After the talk with the kids, Ehlo talked about how he got involved with Rise Above, which aims to educate youth on suicide prevention and to avoid drugs and alcohol.

“I got into this with Brad Meyers, he played with WSU and left when I came there. He put on clinics right after my addiction. I was back from treatment. We try to use basketball to get their attention.”

EHLO CAN be pretty self-effacing and he half-jokingly gave the kids a bit of trivia he was directly involved in. He also gave the kids a quick dose of reality, saying there are a little more than 400 players in the NBA, after a select few play college basketball coming out of high school.

“Michael Jordan scored a career-high 69 points (against Ehlo’s Cleveland Cavaliers on March 28, 1990). You know who guarded him? Me. I played with Spud Webb, who was really short (he was 5-foot-4). It shows you no matter how tall or short you are, all you need is the heart and desire.”

He also mentioned playing for former Washington State coach George Raveling, coming out of Odessa Junior College after he grew up in Lubbock, Texas.

“I grew up in a town with three high schools where basketball was not the number one sport,” Ehlo said. “I was 6-foot-4, but I only weighed about 150 pounds. So going to community college was the best thing that happened to me. I got bigger, got better and got to play for Washington State.”

Ehlo scored 37 points in his final game at WSU, and averaged 12 points per game his senior year. Acording to his player bio, NBA teams like the Houston Rockets, who drafted him in the now-defunct third round of the 1984 draft, were attracted to his ballhandling and shooting skills.

He averaged 8.6 points per game while playing for the Atlanta Hawks, Cavs — he played 10 seasons for the coach who also showed up on Monday, Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens — and began his career playing mostly off the bench for Houston. Wilkens is the second-winningnest coach with 1,332 wins, second only to former Golden State, Milwaukee and Dallas coach Don Nelson’s 1,335. Wilkens broke Red Auerbach’s old record of 938, a record several in the NBA thought would never be broken. Wilkens broke it on Jan. 6, 1995. The milestone victory came when Wilkens’ Atlanta Hawks, with Ehlo coming off the bench, defeated the Washington Bullets 112-90 at the Omni in Atlanta, with Auerbach in attendance. Wilkens also became the first coach to reach 1,000 wins. He led the Sonics to the 1979 NBA title.

“At the time I had played in about 500 of his 939 wins,” Ehlo said.

He talked about how the free agent acquisition of shot-blocking center Dikembe Mutombo, known for his occasional finger-wagging after a blocked shot, spelled doom for Ehlo’s time with Atlanta. He was cut in 1996.

“Atlanta waived us to get Mutombo,” Ehlo said of himself and a couple of then-teammates. “But I signed with Seattle and got to play with George Karl with the Sonics.”

With Seattle, Ehlo was held off the playoff roster, after joint pain in his knee forced him off the court the last three games of the regular season. But he appeared in the playoffs 10 times, most recently in 1996 as a backup guard-forward with the Hawks.

“Craig’s one of my guys,” Wilkens said. “He helped us win games.”

NOWADAYS, EHLO has sent quite a few broadcasting tapes to places like the Pac-12 Networks, CBS Sports Network and other cable stations.

He is certainly qualified, having worked as a TV analyst for the Seattle SuperSonics (2003-2006) and Gonzaga (2006-2012).

“I’m slowly trying to get there,” Ehlo said.

Hopefully not too slowly for this blond bomber.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25