Professional sports are becoming increasingly accessible to people with hearing loss. However, most deaf athletes play in separate leagues instead of alongside or against hearing teammates. There are a few exceptions to this trend.
Lance Allred is the first legally deaf NBA player. Although he only played three games in the NBA, he made a big impact during his short career. After the NBA, he played in other basketball leagues and is still an advocate for people with hearing loss.
Even if it’s only for three games, getting into the NBA is a huge achievement for anyone. It was incredibly difficult for someone with 75-80% hearing loss. Let’s learn more about Lance Allred and how he didn’t let his impairment separate him from hearing players.
Who Is Lance Allred?
Allred is a Mexican-American born in Pinesdale, Montana, in 1981. He was born legally deaf due to Rh disease. This complication was challenging in a small community with limited sign language resources. Limited resources and education often caused young Allred to question his future.
Allred discovered basketball at age 13, and it became his obsession. Determined to make it his career, he preserved while facing severe ableism. Growing up, he faced childhood bullying, offhand comments from conservative adults about the cause of his deafness, and had to change colleges due to abuse from an ableist coach.
Fortunately, that coach was forced to resign after his behavior came to light.
None of this stopped Allred from pushing toward his NBA dreams. After a successful college basketball career at his second college and in international leagues, he got noticed.
Lance Allred in the NBA
Allred’s college basketball stats were incredible, but he wasn’t drafted to the NBA immediately. He played in three international leagues before being accepted into the NBA D-League. After playing in the D-League, he was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2008.
He averaged 1.0 points and 0.3 rebounds in three regular-season games in his one season on the team. He played alongside the legendary LeBron James, a positive experience for him as a player and person.
Allred said this about James as a teammate: “as a teammate, there were many times when I first arrived at Cleveland that LeBron went out of his way with small, simple gestures to help me feel welcome when he did not need to.”
It may have only been one season, but Allred was proud to finally achieve his NBA dreams. After his NBA contract, his basketball career didn’t end.
After the NBA
Allred wrote two books, has appeared on TEDx and played professionally in other leagues until 2016. Other than the NBA, he played in a combination of both deaf leagues and mainstream integrated leagues with hearing people.
Today, he is still an author, speaker, and disability activist. His work has inspired thousands of deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes.
Conclusion
The road to the NBA is hard for anyone. When additional challenges are present, it’s even harder. As an advocate and inspirational speaker, Allred now encourages hard-of-hearing kids to never give up. There still needs to be a second, third, or fourth NBA player with hearing loss.