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.
In 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.
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“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, they think people are dumb or unintelligent, or we’re ignorant, or rude, but that’s not the case for us,” he explained. “We just stutter. So, we just have to take our time with certain words. I hope to be among the people that are advocates for not only those who stutter but for those that aspire to be themselves.
“I’m not perfect but I think a lot people have thought of me as being perfect due to what I did as an athlete. I hope people take note of what I’m doing and just aspire to be themselves.”
The idea for Change & Impact was conceived out of the NBA COVID bubble, when players were forced to isolate as the league restarted the 2019-20 season in Orlando, Florida. Kidd-Gilchrist said he thought about how he wanted to make a change in the world and what he could do as teammates and colleagues around him had advocated for charitable causes.
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“I’m just sitting in my room, and I’m like, man, I had so many bad experiences as far as me trying to relay a message either in school as a kid, or in high school or in college where I was embarrassed,” he explained. “But then, it was a time where people had a little bit more empathy toward everything and anything. I took note of that and I wanted to stop playing.”
He said he thought it was finally time to be himself and “not run anymore.” On top of that, he had a family and wanted to be around more day-to-day.
Since then, Kidd-Gilchrist has personally worked with state lawmakers in Kentucky and Pennsylvania to pass bills that require health insurance coverage for speech therapy for those who stutter. Govs. Andy Beshear and Josh Shapiro both signed bills into law over the last year.
“I’m honored to have been the sponsor of Senate Bill 111, and I’m glad that Kentucky gets to be first of the states in the country where Michael is going to bring this important work and this important change,” Then-Republican Kentucky state Sen. Whitney Westerfield said in April. “Michael, thank you for your advocacy. Using your story and your platform to do good for others is what we are all called to do.”
Kidd-Gilchrist said he is working with lawmakers in several other states to get similar legislation passed, including New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Illinois, Massachusetts and Nevada.
The organization has said that access to speech therapy for children can improve their chances of recovery. Most children start stuttering between the ages of 2 and 5 years old and that stuttering has proven to be genetically based.
For those who do battle with the issue, he offered some words of hope.
“Every kid has their own deal with how they deal with a stutter,” he said. “But I will say, lean on those you know mean well and know that there are better days ahead and seek friendship.”
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