Todd Jadlow isn’t sure the exact moment the party became bigger than basketball, but it did.
A member of Indiana’s 1987 national championship basketball team, Jadlow was playing professional basketball internationally when he realized he was living what players often refer to as “the life.”
“During my professional career, a lot of times the motivation for winning a game was the party afterward with the drugs and alcohol and women,” he said.
“During my playing career, it was widespread. ‘Hey we’ve got this waiting on us. Let’s win this game and get on with the night.’ It was all over. It wasn’t just the life I was living, it was all professional athletes.
“It became about having fun: This is what we’re doing now. It kind of distorted the whole fact that we love playing this game, and it became, ‘Hey, we’re going to win this game so we can get to this party.’”
When his playing days ended, the party didn’t. Or at least the tendencies to dip back into that behavior didn’t.
In an alcohol fog, Todd Jadlow’s world crashed on Dec. 11, 2013.
He received two DUIs in one day, the second coming when he was driving his BMW 750 in excess of 100 mph with his two-year-old daughter in the back seat.
That gave him four DUIs in six months. He ended up spending nearly two years in jail.
This past December, Jadlow completed probation and treatment.
He is free and clear.
He is sober.
And he is reaching out.
Jadlow started the Give It Back Foundation and has begun speaking to groups of people — including athletes — about certain behavior that, while it can seem socially acceptable in certain settings, can lead to devastating consequences.
He is schedule to speak to a group at Indiana in April.
Jadlow is a quiet person, a private person. He’s not someone you’d expect to open up about something that nearly devastated his life.
“I’m the last person who shares anything about my life with strangers,” said Jadlow, a Kansas native who lives back in his home state. “The people who have said, ‘I want to be left alone and live my life,’ that’s me.
“I realized I have to change or I’ll go back to living the life,” he said. “The rush I get from even one person telling me, ‘You’ve helped me more than anyone else has,’ fills this huge void in my life.
“It’s a great opportunity to give back, and at the same point, what I went through probably saved my life. I was at a point I didn’t want to live.”
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The void was real.
Jadlow played junior college basketball then joined Bob Knight’s Indiana program, helping the Hoosiers to the 1987 national championship.
He played professional basketball for 11 years, getting a stop with the New Jersey Nets and spending most of his professional season in Europe and South America.
The void came about, as it does for many athletes, when his playing career ended.
It isn’t as simple as no more games. It’s the loss of the camaraderie with teammates, the sense of being a part of a group, of that group being your identity.
You’re not only no longer playing. You’re no longer a player. You’re not part of the locker room, the road trips, the team.
You’re just you.
Jadlow worked as a sales representative for a firm that handled orthopedic surgical equipment. He was still making a very nice living.
He and friends from the Kansas City Chiefs were returning from a hunting trip in San Antonio when his vehicle was rear ended.
He was left with some memory lapses, neck and back issues. He wasn’t able to work.
“I got extremely depressed. I started isolating myself and found alcohol and it kind of took over my life. I got four DUIs in six months.
“My destruction, I don’t say this just happened during those six months. I think being in the accident exacerbated everything and brought it to the forefront,” Jadlow said.
“I started drinking. The next thing, I was getting these issues, and it never registered. I don’t want anybody to think I’m making excuses.”
Jadlow ended up as a public figure in trouble and in the news.
His first DUI was barely a bump — “All I got was a fine and it kind of disappeared,” he said — the second wasn’t settled at the time he received his third and fourth on the same day.
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The third one happened around 1 a.m. The fourth came around 5 p.m. that same day after he picked up his two-year-old.
His bond was set at $100,000. The prosecutors in Johnson County, Kan., were going for a stiff penalty.
His arrest became public, hitting television in Kansas City and spreading quickly. His attorney had bad news: No plea negotiation.
“I was given two years in jail,” he recalled. “I spent one year in jail and after that I was ordered to go to a therapeutic community which is behavior modification but still under corrections. I did six months there and another two months in center that is like a work-release situation.”
In Johnson County, there is nearly a 97 percent recidivism rate for alcohol-related offenses. Jadlow wants not only to make sure he’s not in that group but to keep others out of it as well.
Now he’s focused on his foundation and his family.
He has five girls: 4, eighth grade, high school junior, freshman at Kansas and one headed to medical school.
“One of the things that made me change was what I did to my children, putting them through all I went through,” he said.
“Having the ability to have a clear mind and be able to think about it, it basically brings you to your knees. I was tired of living that life. You get into that cycle and you feel you can’t get out.”
Jadlow has reunited with Indiana. He returned to Bloomington in January for the celebration of Indiana’s 1976 national championship team.
It was the first time he had been back to campus since IU fired Bob Knight.
Jadlow said he first experienced cocaine after his college career ended.
He was prepping for the NBA draft, feeling great about his life and basketball prospects.
“One of my teammates went through a pretty public ordeal with drugs my senior year, and I walked into his apartment and it was, ‘Hey, I got something for you.’
“I did it and enjoyed it to be honest. I remember telling myself, ‘This isn’t right. I wasn’t raised like this. Coach Knight has always been a father figure, even to this day.
“I knew it was wrong, but there was something exciting about this taboo activity that thrilled me.
“Little did I know that one line of cocaine would become my motivation for winning games.”
When he talks to people about his journey, he’s not preaching.
His message is more about his experience.
For those who haven’t had an issue, he wants them to be aware of the pitfalls.
For those battling issues, he wants them to know someone has been there — and there is a way out.
He now has a purpose.
“My goal is to help people, and help them before they get to the point where I was,” Jadlow said.
“If you can prevent one person from going down that path, then you’ve done something.”
