Cavs star Kevin Love is a known advocate for mental health awareness. In March 2018, the former UCLA standout wrote an outstanding essay for The Players’ Tribune. As part of his article, which is titled “Everyone Is Going Through Something,” he shared his struggles with anxiety, panic attacks and depression. Now, in an effort to further the discussion, he’s adding to the story.
Love was a guest on HBO’s “The Shop” to discuss some of the internal battles he has faced over the years. Amid the barbershop-style discussion, the 30-year-old revealed he was hiding his ailments before ultimately deciding to make them public:
“I was deflecting because I didn’t want anybody to know,” Love said. “There is such a stigma around it. But now, I have a saying, ‘Only by admitting who you are do you get what you want.’ So I played all my cards and said, ‘This is what you get.’
“But in that time, until you can really admit what’s going on, you’re in such a hole that you have blinders on,” Love added. “And I thought, ‘I don’t want anybody else to tell my story.'”
Love’s willingness to open up about mental health issues opened a door of revelation for several other NBA players who were facing similar issues, including San Antonio Spurs shooting guard DeMar DeRozan.
For 29 years, Love kept his mental health issues to himself. Now, after opening up about his afflictions, the Cavs star is at the forefront of the discussion.
“For 29 years, I thought about mental health as someone else’s problem,” Love wrote in his essay for The Players’ Tribune.
“Mental health isn’t just an athlete thing,” Love wrote. “What you do for a living doesn’t have to define who you are. This is an everyone thing.”
Love will continue to make his voice heard, and the hope is many others will follow in his footsteps.