Lonnie Walker IV’s trademark hair was a ‘disguise’ he bravely shed earlier than his Nets arrival
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For Lonnie Walker IV, his hardest second wasn’t getting harm or getting dropped from the Lakers’ beginning lineup.
It wasn’t shedding his spot within the rotation or being let go in free company.
No, life had proven him what actually robust was.
For one of many latest Nets, his most troublesome problem was lastly deciding to open up about the sexual abuse he had survived as a child from the age of seven to 10. It was slicing off the hair he had grown as a coping mechanism and making a press release he thought would assist others out who had endured comparable horrors.
Seems, the cathartic reveal — and listening to from fellow survivors — helped him much more.
“Rising up, I used to be sexually assaulted, and there was some extent of time the place I didn’t actually know a lot about the rest apart from simply that,” Walker mentioned this week on the “Voice of the Nets” podcast. “So I grew my hair up. I needed to really feel like I had some sort of possession in my life, or some sort of one thing that I can name mine. … I simply had my hair. I used to at all times contact it, used to at all times play with it. Saved me sane. That’s what actually helped me out, helped disguise a whole lot of issues, helped me get by, even generally if I wasn’t the happiest particular person on the planet. …
“And as soon as I hit some extent the place I used to be reaching a brand new chapter in my life, I made a decision to chop it. Understanding the previous is the previous and me figuring out the larger image, which is figuring out that I’m not the one one.”
A haircut and a message
Walker — who signed a one-year, veteran minimum deal with the Nets on Monday — was the No. 18 general choose by the Spurs within the 2018 NBA Draft and spent 4 years in San Antonio. After signing with the Lakers final offseason, Walker averaged 14.7 factors per recreation as a part of the beginning lineup till hurting his knee in late December and shedding his spot within the crew’s midseason makeover. He got here again to make crucial contributions in the Lakers’ Western Conference semifinals triumph over the Warriors.
The 24-year-old started to develop out his trademark hair in center faculty. He wore it as a highschool star in Studying, Pa., and on the College of Miami and within the NBA with the Spurs.
“It was truthfully a dressing up, a disguise,” Walker mentioned. “However as I obtained older, it gave me confidence. It gave me my swagger. It gave me who I used to be. When folks considered Lonnie, [they] considered me with the hair. Then you definately go on to draft day the place I had the floating hat. So it didn’t actually turn into a disguise as soon as I got here into the league, it grew to become simply who I used to be, what I represented so far as having your individual swag and your individual confidence and your individual aura.”
Till three years in the past, when Walker made an emotional Instagram post revealing what had occurred to him. Throughout that summer season earlier than fifth grade, he wrote within the caption, round relations who had not been current as a lot, he was “sexually harassed, raped, abused.” The submit included video footage of Walker slicing off his hair.
“That was one of the necessary moments,” Walker mentioned on the podcast. “Folks at all times requested, ‘Are you going to ever minimize your hair?’ And I’d be like, ‘Uh, probably not.’ As a result of I had such a deep bond with it so far as my previous and understanding what it actually was, greater than folks actually understood.
“So as soon as I obtained it minimize, it felt like weight off my again greater than I assumed. All of the stress and all of the random animosity or anger that I might have, it simply felt like, I minimize it off, and it’s like, the previous is the previous, you’re coming into a brand new realm, a brand new a part of your life.”
Walker has a giving facet: He operates the Lonnie Walker IV Basis and runs a basketball camp again in hardscrabble Studying. However what he did largely as a solution to give different sexual abuse survivors hope additionally gave him an surprising catharsis.
“Me voicing my story, me telling others what occurred would assist, whether or not it was one particular person or 1,000 folks, that’s what catapulted me into slicing my hair,” mentioned Walker. “However there’s so many different those that want to listen to this, that may relate to this, that may perceive that there’s gentle on the finish of the tunnel.
“And, truthfully, as a lot as I assumed I used to be serving to others, it helped me out tenfold, listening to the quantity of those that confirmed love: ‘Hey, I’ve been by way of this earlier than, and I perceive and thanks.’ … It was one thing that I used to be terrified to talk on. However as soon as I obtained to talk on it and perceive that I’m not the one one, it made my life a lot simpler.”
Power from household
Walker’s mother and father — Tamica Wall and Lonnie III, a former standout at Alvernia College — weren’t conscious of the abuse their son was enduring. (“The toughest factor for me was my father and mom didn’t actually know an excessive amount of, in order that was form of a tough transition,” Walker recounted on the podcast.)
Although his mother and father are separated, each have been large elements of Walker’s life at numerous instances in numerous methods. Walker and his mom battled homelessness in Studying; his father skilled him to turn into a future NBA participant.
It was one other member of the family, Walker mentioned, who helped him attain an epiphany and publicly converse concerning the abuse. That was his grandmother.
“There’s some extent of time the place I had flashbacks or…the place I’m not within the best of moods, and my grandma was one of many few those that talked to me and calmed me down and let me see a totally completely different perspective that I by no means obtained to see,” Walker mentioned. “She used to at all times say you’re a beacon in life, having the ability to unfold your messages and assist others. …
“My grandma actually helped me lock in and say I’m prepared to chop [my hair]. I’m able to get previous [it]. … And thru all of it, I discovered inner peace and happiness inside myself.”
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