With Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love recently opening up about his personal mental health issues, and Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan responding by revealing he has dealt with depression, the topic of mental health is at the forefront for the NBA.
The Los Angeles Lakers have experience in dealing with mental health issues from their time with Metta World Peace. After the 2010 NBA Finals, World Peace thanked his psychologist for helping him, and he has since become a major spokesperson for mental health awareness.
The Lakers and owner Jeanie Buss have learned from this experience and Buss, in an interview with ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan, revealed that she believes team’s should be putting more focus on mental health:
“We’ve invested in all these state-of-the-art facilities and cryogenic chambers, hydro pools and all that, but we haven’t focused on mental health,” Buss said.