
Mental Health Rumors

Los Angeles Clippers superstar Paul George has partnered with BetterHelp to give up to $3 million in free therapy. George and BetterHelp, which is the largest online therapy platform, also hope to increase awareness while providing access to resources to help with mental health. I was recently able to talk to George about his mental health journey and partnership with BetterHelp in an interview. Paul George is passionate about mental health which led to him deciding to partner with BetterHelp. “I think just bringing awareness,” George told me about the partnership. “A lot of people don’t know where to go to, who to talk to, it might be a cost factor. So bringing free therapy to people, being a resource was the mindset behind the collab and the partnership.”
George also happens to be one of the best players in the NBA. Although the Clippers dealt with injuries during the 2022-23 season, the future is bright for the team if they can stay healthy. With high expectations and injury trouble comes adversity though, and Paul George recognizes just how important mental health is when it comes to sports. “I think the game is honestly 90 percent mental,” George said. “The rest is the God-given talent of what we’ve been gifted. But the game is all internal, we’ve been doing it for so long now that… it’s just who we are at this point… anytime that we can think the game through or even just get away from the game mentally that will only make us better as athletes.”
In the midst of Mental Awareness Month in May, Jordan says it’s important for him to help his teammates be a “couple years ahead” of where he was mentally at the same time in his career. He said he took his teammates through a meditation session before Game 2 of their first-round series against Minnesota. Jordan, a follower of Buddhism, meditates daily, practices yoga and engages in a strict plant-based diet.
Ohm Youngmisuk: Nikola Jokic on Belgrade shooting and checking on mental health: “I’m really sorry for everything families are going through. You don’t want to hear it… It’s Serbia. Never happened before. I was so surprised. I thought we don’t have that or the mindset but that’s not true (now)”
The Charles Antetokounmpo Family Foundation, a charitable nonprofit organization, was launched on June 24, 2022. The foundation operates in “places central to the Antetokounmpo family journey” — Charles Antetokounmpo’s native Nigeria, Greece and in the U.S., where three of his five sons play for the Bucks organization. The foundation invests in local nonprofits and change-makers in those three countries with hopes of making a “a global movement for sustainable social change.” The foundation offers aid to widows, disaster victims, refugees, immigrants, as well as those who need education, shelter, food and mental health assistance.

Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo pledged a $1 million donation for mental health services in Milwaukee last month. In a 2021 interview with GQ Magazine, he said he’d sought therapy to cope with pressure, and this month he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he’d thought of quitting basketball in 2020 because of that pressure. “I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as an endemic unhappiness — I think what I would describe is an awareness and openness and energy to really engage, maybe intentionally and proactively, to be well and stay well,” NBA vice president of player development Jamila Wideman said.
In that same hallway, near the tunnel that minor-league hockey players use to trudge toward the ice in their skates, is another locker room. During Cavs games, there’s a sign on the door to this particular room that reads “Visiting Team, Fitness and Wellness Room.” Again, it’s just a locker room. But inside is where a player can go to get away from teammates, coaches, media and fans to clear his mind, to meditate, to talk through fears with a psychologist. All 30 teams are required to make this “fitness and wellness” room available to their opponents. It’s the newest league rule regarding mental health, added at the start of this season.