Kevin Love didn’t play in the NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte, largely because the five-time All-Star had played just six games before the break. Still, you could argue the Cleveland Cavalier is in the midst of one of the most meaningful seasons of his career. Love has gone through the proverbial wringer over the last calendar year and emerged as an important figure in the National Basketball Association in a number of different ways.
With LeBron James gone from Cleveland, Love is now the leader of a Cavaliers team looking for a new identity. Perhaps that hasn’t happened as much as he’d hoped, as Love suffered a toe injury in October that required surgery in early November. Love returned for the Cavs in limited minutes before the All-Star break, but it’s been a long layoff for the 11-year veteran. The season, both for Love himself and the Cavaliers as a whole, has been difficult.
But as a person, Love has embarked on a new journey as an advocate for mental health in the NBA. Last March, Love wrote an article in The Player’s Tribune where he revealed he suffered from panic attacks late in 2017. “Everyone Is Going Through Something” sent ripples through the NBA, both in locker rooms and among fans who rarely see professional athletes talk about their mental health.
“For 29 years, I thought about mental health as someone else’s problem. Sure, I knew on some level that some people benefited from asking for help or opening up. I just never thought it was for me,” Love wrote. “To me, it was form of weakness that could derail my success in sports or make me seem weird or different.”
That’s certainly changed for Love, who over the last 11 months has embraced a dialogue with people about the importance of addressing mental health issues. Last year, he teamed up with Schick for a video series that featured Love talking with other athletes about men’s health.
Love spoke with U.S. Olympic legend Michael Phelps about mental health and former Cavaliers teammate Channing Frye about a health scare with his heart that threatened his career. A later chat with Paul Pierce spoke about not just the physical toll of getting stabbed in 2000, but the mental health issues he dealt with as he recovered. Love said it was important to frame all of these issues as the same and — especially in Frye’s case — part of a larger picture of both mental and physical health.
“The essence of this whole thing, not only the Man to Man campaign but the Locker Room Talk was showing masculinity in a way of communication and vulnerability as a man and sharing stories that I think a lot of people are afraid to open up about in a public setting,” Love told Dime over the phone.
Since then, Love has embraced any and all questions about mental health and how it’s often ignored by athletes, men in particular. It’s a marketing opportunity, sure, but it’s also an extremely important point of visibility for a very serious problem. Love has called it “the biggest thing” in his career, and it’s something he takes seriously.
These videos are important not because everyone will see them, or that they’ll sell some razors, but because some of those who truly need to hear Love’s message will. Those that struggle with mental health don’t see their issues represented in sports. Love spoke of this in relation to the grind of a basketball season, but it works in a larger sense as well.
“I think every day is a win,” Love said. “You have to find a way to have goals and have those microwins every single day. And making sure that, at least for me, my form of escapism is basketball but also staying very creative and working on projects away from basketball to keep my mind very occupied and staying stimulated.”
The pressures of being an athlete and performing in front of millions can be immense, yet many people view mental health issues as a singular fight without the help of others, and social media can’t help. Love has more than three million people following him on Twitter. I asked what that’s like, and how hard it is to block out the negative messages he gets through social media. Even if you know it’s trolling, getting that much hate sent your way in bulk has to make an impact, right?
“Sure. People are so funny because they’ll go ‘Ah I don’t read it’ or ‘Ah I don’t see it.’ But one way or another it finds you,” Love said. “It’s just how you absorb it and how you cope with it and how you deal with it.”
Love actually considers himself lucky in this respect — he’s gotten “incredible amounts of praise” to go along with “the complete opposite” of that. But he stressed it’s important to experience both and find a balance.
“I am very, very good at tuning out that noise, but I’m not immune to it by any means. That one percent that you let bleed in can make all the difference, for better or worse,” Love said. “So you have to make sure that you’re filtering that stuff and knowing that a lot of it is just noise but it takes having gone through it and having understood it to know.”
It’s an easy thing to say, but significantly harder to actually execute. Love said he’s optimistic the next generation of stars, those who have grown up as Instagram stars because of their dunks and high school mixtapes, are prepared for what’s to come when they reach the next level.
“I’m hoping that the younger demo really knows that noise and those people that are expressing or spewing hatred over social media behind the screen are doing it as direct reflection about how they feel about themselves,” he said.
Love believes opening up about his struggles “changed my life,” and he knows he’s not alone. The biggest change over the last year in becoming a de facto spokesperson for mental health in sports is that, well, people talk to him about it all the time.
“I think that’s something that’s been very, very eye-opening to me,” he said. “People coming up to me from any team, whether it’s coaches, front office, ownership, other players asking where they can get help, what they can do.”
Love wants people to talk about themselves, honestly and with a willingness to reach out for help if it’s needed. That’s hard to do, and it’s equally difficult to change the prevailing perception that admitting mental health struggles is a sign of weakness. But Love said it’s part of the process he wants to continue this season, as a leader on the Cavaliers and in the NBA as a whole.
When he finally gets back into a rhythm on the court for the Cavs, things will be different for Love. A major part of this, will involve breaking out of some of “bad habits” he admits he developed early in his career and becoming a true leader.
“I’ve kind of seen it all and done a lot to a point,” Love said. “But there’s still so much to be learned from a leadership aspect. And I’m hoping that translates to every aspect of my life. But there’s still so much to be learned.”
