That Ja Morant needs professional help to redirect his career is out of the question. Despite the fact that it seemed that he was already all right after his suspension and visit to Adam Silver’s office, he took out the pistols for a walk again and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
His career hangs by a thread and many were scared a few days ago, when he uploaded some mysterious stories in which he said goodbye to his loved ones. The police had to intervene to make sure that Morant had not committed and would not commit anything crazy, but that was just one more case in which the mental health of an NBA player has been the protagonist.
The best basketball league in the world is used to being a true reflection of society. As much as they are taller, stronger and good at putting it through a hoop, elite players are still people and many of them are victims of one of the great global problems of the 21st century.
In 2018, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) launched a mental health and wellness program to give players greater access to mental health counselors, one of the figures found in every NBA franchise. That year and just before the All-Star, DeMar DeRozan he was the first major league star to speak openly about his mental health issues. His past linked to gang violence took its toll on him, and testimony like this was what the league needed to start its mental health programs.
Shortly after DeRozan’s confession, Kevin Love joined him. The now Miami Heat player described in detail a panic attack he had during a timeout.
“I had never had one before. I didn’t even know if they were real. But it was real, as real as a broken hand or sprained ankle. Since that day, almost everything I think about my mental health has changed,” said Love, one of the best-known faces on the subject of mental health in the NBA: the interior founded ‘The Kevin Love Fund’, an initiative that seeks to improve the physical and emotional well-being of its participants and has received several awards and recognitions for its work in favor of awareness of the importance of mental health.
Aaron Gordon, Metta World Peace, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Andre Drummond… The list of players who have required professional help to treat their mental problems is long, so the NBA had to act. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, the NBA has required all teams to have a formal relationship with a mental health professional, either a therapist or psychologist on their staff, as well as a licensed psychiatrist for medication and other issues. serious.
Absolutely all the 30 NBA teams are complying with this obligation to the letter, a rule that has been active for several years and which were the foundations of another new obligation on the subject of mental health. Starting this season, all halls have a room with the name “Visiting team, fitness and wellness room”. It’s just a changing room, but for many players it’s a place where they can relax, hide from everything around them and discuss their concerns with a psychologist.
It is estimated that one in five Americans will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives. To think that none of the more than 400 players that the NBA currently has will be out of this statistic is to be far from reality, so the NBA -and in these things it usually has an admirable good eye- has done very well in trying to put their grain of sand.
read also
2023-05-28 06:10:58
#Mental #health #remains #center #NBA
