Anthony Ervin stood on the pool deck last month at CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb., having just secured a berth on his second U.S. Olympic swim team, and was asked by NBC reporter Andrea Kremer how he can keep momentum going toward competing in London.

Ervin, an insightful, eloquent and philosophical Hart High graduate, needed only two words to relay his message, not only to Kremer, but to the world: “Why stop?”

Nearly a decade ago, Ervin’s stellar career in the pool appeared to reach its conclusion, with no reason to believe it would start again.

He left the sport in 2003, citing burnout at age 22 despite being a two-time world champion and sharing the Olympic 50-meter freestyle gold medal in 2000 in Sydney with fellow American Gary Hall Jr.

“I really felt like I had accomplished every goal I had set out to (achieve),” Ervin said. “It became time to go back and reclaim some of the stuff I had sacrificed along the way.”

During his eight-year hiatus from competition, there were several peaks and valleys Ervin, now 31 and competing Thursday in the Olympic 50 freestyle prelims, experienced physically and emotionally.

“He’s had a really different journey with the sport than his teammates,” said Cal women’s coach Teri McKeever, who has seen Ervin’s career come full circle during her 20-year tenure in Berkeley.

“To see it the first time through as a spectator and to be in the inner circle this time is really exciting.”

Perhaps the most notable moment came when Ervin auctioned off his Olympic gold medal for $17,101 on eBay with the proceeds donated to the UNICEF relief fund to benefit the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

But he also lost his Olympic silver medal earned as a member of the 4 x100 freestyle relay that fell to the host Australians, the result of a nomadic lifestyle that had him never living in the same place for more than nine months and having to pay bills with the money earned from offering swim lessons and promoting concerts.

Ervin played guitar in the band “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and continued alcohol and drug use that were present even before he attend Cal and competed in the 2000 Olympics. Although he was prescribed to take tranquilizers for Tourette’s syndrome, which he was diagnosed with in eighth grade, Ervin even experimented with altering the dosage on his own leading up to his gold-medal run at age 19 in Sydney.

His lifestyle out of the water was often more aggressive and unpredictable than the outcome of the high-intensity races in the pool.

The former Southern Section champion, whose Div. II records in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle set in 1999 still stand, resented the demands the sport placed on him. Instead of taking out his frustrations by defeating his competition in the water, he lashed out with excessive partying and womanizing.

According to an article scheduled to run in Thursday’s Rolling Stone magazine, Ervin even tried to kill himself a decade ago by consuming several tranquilizers, which resulted in him losing consciousness. He also cheated death another time when he was involved in a high-speed chase with police outside of Berkeley while riding his motorcycle, resulting in him crashing into a Mustang and surprisingly only suffering a dislocated shoulder.

“If I can’t destroy myself,” Ervin recalled when thinking about both episodes, “maybe I can’t be destroyed.”

By the time the 2004 Olympics arrived in Athens, Ervin had not only quit swimming but also dropped out of Cal. He re-enrolled at Berkeley in 2007, completed his bachelor’s degree in English in 2010, and is now working on a graduate degree in sport, culture and education.

After getting his first tattoo of the Olympic rings for winning the gold medal, Ervin’s arms today are covered with sleeves of artwork, which he says illustrates several milestones in his life.

His curly, well-groomed hair was once worn in dreadlocks, shown off while working in music stores and tattoo parlors, but it has returned now, although rarely seen under his swimming cap or hats outside the water.

In order to escape his alcohol- and drug-related depression, Ervin begin meditation at a Buddhist temple, also becoming fascinated with philosophy, poetry and parables. He even fasted for Ramadan.

Although he began focusing more on his fitness and allowing his body to heal following years of punishment, not with grueling practices, but with thanks to several bad habits, Ervin also found himself financially deprived and in desperate need of work and some sense of stability.

On the advice of Doug Stern, a triathlon swimming coach he met through Hall, Ervin connected in New York in 2006 with former Cal teammate Lars Merseburg, one of the founders of Imagine swim school in the Manhattan area. Ervin spent four years taking courses toward his degree at Cal and returning to New York during the summers to teach swimming.

Once he started his graduate studies at Cal, Ervin became an instructor with the Oakland Undercurrent swim program, which, like Imagine, also features former Cal swimmers Spencer Hawkins and Rolandas Gimbutus as coaches.

It wasn’t, however, until Ervin watched Cal win the NCAA Division I men’s swimming and diving title — the Golden Bears’ first since 1980 — that he regained the desire to compete in the pool. He approached McKeever and asked if he could ease back into training by working out with the Cal women’s team.

McKeever first encouraged Ervin to enroll in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s drug-testing program, then asked him to race in a Masters meet in Mountain View in September, followed by the Chesapeake Elite Pro-Am in December in Oklahoma City.

His times indicated he could again contend for an Olympic berth.

“It’s not very often that athletes get to share what they’re doing and why they’re doing it and what they’re getting out of it, but Anthony has and that’s made the journey he’s on really special,” said McKeever, who also serves as Olympic women’s team coach.

“The first time around, he was doing it for other people. This time, it’s for Anthony and it’s been really neat to see him share that message. He’s a really special young man and he’s really invested a lot of time and energy into this, and he’s being rewarded for his efforts.”

Although Ervin credits several people for providing assistance for turning his life around outside the pool, he offers the most praise to Cal men’s coach David Durden and McKeever for resurrecting his swimming career in time to join fellow veterans Brendan Hansen, 30, and 36-year-old Jason Lezak on the U.S. men’s national team.

“(Teri) inherited a very fragile, mentally — is the best word for it — kind of persona, and she brought back what it was like to swim for fun and enjoy it myself. I was enjoying seeing the kids swim, because I was coaching, but enjoying to do it myself, she brought that back to me, so I have to give her credit,” Ervin said. “And Dave Durden is a chief builder, a hero general. He brought me into that team; he didn’t have to do that. It has been incredible to work with him. His knowledge, getting me tuned up for the water, his ability to keep me grounded when emotions may want to take over.”

Ervin’s passion for swimming, combined with a sharp focus during training with the Cal coaches, translated into a lifetime-best effort of 21.60 seconds in the 50 freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials, finishing one-hundredth behind Cullen Jones and edging another Cal standout, Nathan Adrian, by eight-hundredths to compete in London.

“He’s changed a lot since 12 years ago, but he’s still putting up fast times. He’s definitely shown some great speed,” said Lezak, a teammate of Ervin’s on the 2000 Olympic roster.

“He’s a really good addition to the team.”

Although Ervin’s personality didn’t lend itself to being a captain despite his seniority, Hansen — the U.S. men’s team leader — knows the life experience Ervin possesses has been invaluable for a young American roster.

“You know if he steps up and says something, it’s going to be pretty damn important. And he has a way of picking the right time, the right place and the right way to say it,” Hansen said. “He’s a very smart guy and whatever he says, you know it’s going to be Anthony-esque, because that’s the only way he can do it.”

Just like the unique journey belonging to Ervin, the son of an African American and Native American father and Jewish mother, who once competed for Canyons Aquatic Club in Santa Clarita and now looks to write the next chapter at the Olympics by possibly replacing his old medals with a new one in London.

“It’s been an incredible journey, but the journey continues,” Ervin said in Omaha. “I mean the medal is up there. It’s there, you know, whether I can land one or not, I hope so. I’m going to try my best. I’m not controlling what anyone else is doing. There are incredible swimmers around the world that will be there. All I can promise is I’m going to do what I can.”

erik.boal@dailynews.com