Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was a rising NBA star and at the end of his career he shares with Fox News Digital how he's raising awareness about stuttering.

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.