The healing bond between John Lucas, Tyrann Mathieu

Arena speakers blare. Basketballs ricochet off hardwood.

NBA stars see John Lucas sitting courtside, stride forward, and interrupt an interview to hug him and whisper in his ear. Two kids discover Lucas in the middle of the court, then start smiling and laughing.

Lucas — fallen star, resurrected human being, passionate teacher, life mentor, basketball coach and so much more — just keeps reflecting on his bond with Tyrann Mathieu.

The words don’t stop. The lessons always continue.

“I’m proud of him for what he’s done,” Lucas said. “But more importantly, it’s what he’s overcome.”

As Lucas speaks, Mathieu — somewhere in his own professional world — tweets to almost 1 million followers with his trademark personal fire.

“You can’t just hear what they say … you have to hear what they don’t say as well!!!”

Lucas, 65, is the head of player development for Houston’s NBA team, which won a franchise-record 65 games last season and came one victory away from the NBA Finals.

Mathieu, 26, is in his first year as a safety and inspirational leader for Houston’s NFL team, which won a franchise-record nine consecutive games this season and clinched a playoff spot Sunday.

“A lot of people think I’m special,” Mathieu said. “I just think I’m a normal guy who just can handle pain, adversity.”

Lucas reached out to a falling, failing Mathieu in 2012. Their connection began with mounting troubles Lucas knew far too well: Fame, pressure, self-denial, drug problems, more denial, more problems.

Their life bond continues to deepen.

“I don’t know where I’d be without guys like John,” Mathieu said. “It’s important for me to remember that and know that. I’m not really the only person out here that may be struggling with things, so I think it’s important for me to kind of be a helper.”

Humble yourself.

That was the heart of Lucas’ first message to Mathieu.

“That’s some of the hardest days of your life,” said Mathieu, standing inside a buzzing Texans locker room. “With practice and, obviously, the right people around you, you can kind of get to that point where you can look in the mirror and not really fault anybody else. Once you do that, you’re able to cross over to the other side.”

Help others.

That is all Lucas asks six years later, after the “Honey Badger” — Heisman Trophy candidate as a sophomore; on top of a crumbling personal world at LSU — first started seeing his real self up close at Lucas’ rehab center in Houston.

“For people who have problems with alcohol or drugs, sports is the worst thing to come out of, because it’s such ego-driven,” said Lucas, who recalled a young Mathieu possessing a maturity level that was off the charts. “Recovery is such a smashing of the ego. Because the same thing that makes them good at football, you’ve got to lose all of that once the game ends, and that’s not easy.”

Mathieu’s downward spiral is well-known. His college career lasted just two years due to heavy marijuana use. He was kicked off LSU’s team in August 2012, following repeated violations of the school’s substance-abuse policy and failed drug tests.

“It’s hard, because we all love Tyrann. We are going to miss him,” then-Tigers coach Les Miles said at the time.

Lucas’ rock-bottom realization hit much harder.

The Rockets made the highly talented guard from Maryland the No. 1 overall pick of the 1976 NBA draft. He scored 9,951 points and distributed 6,454 assists during a turbulent 14-year career. But after struggling with cocaine and alcohol, everything went dark for Lucas in 1986, when he failed another drug test and was released by a Rockets team that eventually came two wins away from a championship.

“'We’re out of the rehab business,” then-Rockets coach Bill Fitch said in 1986.

Lucas finally became “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” The long-delayed awakening was turned into a teaching moment.

Rod Strickland, Ty Lawson and JaMarcus Russell are among the struggling NBA, NFL and college stars Lucas has tried to reach. He’s been linked to everyone from Kobe Bryant and LeBron James to Steve Francis and J.R. Smith. Lucas receives calls from the parents of wavering teenagers. He coaches, mentors, observes and pushes for a better daily world.

“He just said everything I told him was (crap) and everything that came out of my mouth was a lie, an excuse,” Mathieu said. “He just stayed on me, man. He stayed on top of me and he really got through to me. He just kept speaking to me, sharing his story — how chaotic his life was. To kind of look at him now, take a step back and look at him now, see where he’s at … ”

The words trail off.

The old stories are currently long in the past for Mathieu and Lucas. The hard personal message never ends.

“For every guy that you see that makes it, there’s probably nine others that didn’t make it,” Lucas said. “For the guys that don’t make it, we say, ‘For the grace of God, there go I.’ ”

Before the Texans turned 0-3 into 10-5 via a historic revival, coach Bill O’Brien asked several of his players to speak to the team as a new season was beginning.

By sharing personal stories, O’Brien hoped his squad might grow closer and the locker room — dominated by aging veterans coming off major injuries and dynamic young stars touching their athletic primes — might become united.

Fifteen games later, Mathieu’s words are making an impact on Kirby Drive.

“I don’t think that’s easy to do, to stand up in front of your peers and talk about what’s important to you, whether it’s something that has to do with football or life or whatever,” said O’Brien, who was handed a game ball by Mathieu early this season. “He’s a really good speaker, he’s got a powerful voice and he’s got a great life story that’s still continuing. There’s a lot of respect for him in that locker room — I know there is. I mean, the guy was voted a captain and he hadn’t even been here for a full football season. I think that says it all about him. He’s just a good guy.”

Mathieu's theme of “fall forward” was repeated and hammered home. “I'm letting my scars bleed all 2018” — a tweet from February still pinned to the top of his social media profile — captures a soul-bearing speech that instantly reminded O’Brien’s Texans that life was bigger than another NFL season.