Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was no slouch as a professional basketball player.The 6-foot-6 forward starred at St. Patrick in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before he committed to Kentucky, where he helped lead the Wildcats to a national championship in 2012. He was the No. 2 overall pick in the draft later that year by the Charlotte Bobcats and made the NBA All-Rookie Team in his first season in the NBA.He played for the Bobcats, which later became the Charlotte Hornets, until about midway through the 2019-20 season, when he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. He stepped away from the professional ranks after playing in 2020 after he was waived by the New York Knicks.CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMIn all, Kidd-Gilchrist averaged 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in 466 career games.What few people knew during the highs and lows of his basketball career was that Kidd-Gilchrist battled through an issue that affects more than 3 million Americans and more than 80 million people globally. He suffered from stuttering.Stuttering is one of the toughest issues to talk about because it usually creates a false perception about the person who suffers from it – even getting out your name when ordering a coffee at Starbucks meeting knew people can be as difficult as putting together a math equation, not to mention the loneliness a person may feel failing to do something that appears to be very simple.”I always had a stutter. I had an (Individualized Education Program) around it in school. I had felt that I was always the outsider in the school system at times,” he told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “But it didn’t really pick up as far as my insecurities around it until I was in eighth grade and high school. That’s where, obviously, I was known for playing basketball.”Kidd-Gilchrist said as his popularity grew on the floor, it off the floor. The requests for him to be interviewed and to be able to speak on the spot increased. He said it was “tough” to handle.SPURS STAR VICTOR WEMBANYAMA TO MISS THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON OVER BLOOD CLOT”I’ve been fortunate to have the family that I have. But as far as a person who would stutter, it’d been only me. It’d been only me from school to college to the pros,” he said. “I knew that in a moment in time I would not only advocate for myself but for my family.”Kidd-Gilchrist turned his personal strife into a long-term vision for change.He founded Change & Impact Inc. to help those who stutter receive better healthcare and more access and resources help make a difference, along with raising awareness about stuttering and dispelling myths around it.Some of the myths include that those who stutter are nervous, unintelligent, stressed out or that stuttering can be “caught” through imitation or hearing someone else stutter or that an easy fix is to just take a breath.As Kidd-Gilchrist and others know, that is far from the case.”I think for a lot of people that don’t know about stuttering, t
Former NBA player Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is raising awareness about stuttering.
