Lance Allred escaped a cult and overcame deafness, obsessive compulsive disorder and depression to become the NBA's first legally deaf player.

During a speech entitled "Lance Allred: NBA Player, Author, Scholar, Advocate for the Deaf," held Monday in the Founders Lounge of the Bryce Jordan Center, Allred told his life story to about 60 people.

Lance was born prematurely and suffered from Rh incompatibility, a condition in which a pregnant woman has an Rh-negative blood type and her fetus has an Rh-positive blood type. At some point during the pregnancy or the tests and procedures that followed his birth, his ears were damaged, leaving him severely deaf.

Lance's deafness was not discovered until he was a toddler. His frustration at being deaf made him violent and difficult to raise, said his mother Tana, who spoke alongside him during the speech.

"If you had been our first, you would have been our last," Tana said to Lance, the youngest of five children.

Allred was born into a polygamist Mormon cult in Montana. His father was raised in the community and his mother married into it when she was 16 years old.

Lance and his mother usually speak to younger audiences and rarely mention this part of their past, Tana said. Though it may sound ridiculous to some people, "we truly were preparing for the second coming of Jesus," she said.

When Lance was 6, his family moved to Utah because his dad challenged the authority of a prophet, but the family still remained members of the religious sect until Lance was about 13, he said.

Growing up, Lance was teased constantly -- for his religious affiliation and for being deaf. Kids took his hearing aids and threw them around, he said.

Having a sense of humor has helped Lance, he said, adding his father raised him on Helen Keller jokes.

"You need to be able to laugh at yourself," he said.

When Lance was about 14, he began to develop obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which he tried to hide by focusing on a new passion: basketball.

Lance put all of his energy into basketball and after graduating from high school received an athletic scholarship to the University of Utah, but he was not happy there. His coach made fun of him for being deaf, he said. The stress made him depressed and caused his OCD to worsen. After two years at the University of Utah, Lance transferred to Weber State University and began treatment for his OCD. After playing professional basketball in Europe and then in the NBA Development League, he was accepted into the NBA in 2008 by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While Lance spoke, an interpreter translated his words into sign language for deaf members of the audience. Students Megan Pietrocola (junior-elementary education) and Kimberly Jewison (junior-elementary education), who are taking an introductory course in sign language, said they appreciated Lance's story and the opportunity to see sign language.

"It was really good. ... I didn't know what to expect," Jewison said. "It was cool to see translation in the real world."

Allred's story impressed Pietrocola.

"I didn't realize how much he had to overcome to get where he is today," she said.

Lance choked up at the end of the speech as he talked about the good ways in which his life has changed in recent years.

"You only get one life," he said. "It's not whether we fail or succeed that's important. It's whether you try."