Why Mental Health Took Center Court During NBA All-Star Weekend

"During NBA All-Star week, players from nearly every team gather to celebrate basketball, close endorsement deals, and more. Traditionally, it's a space where people from the industry amplify their achievements from the past year. However, this year, in a private room just off the Sunset Strip, a different kind of conversation drew attention: one centered on emotional resilience."

"For years, athletes were simply expected to "suck it up" and "move on," forced to compartmentalize fear, suppress doubt, and equate emotional restraint with strength. Prior ways of defining toughness left no space for things like anxiety, burnout, or uncertainty. Now, though, we understand that emotional suppression is not resilience. In fact, suppressing emotions over time correlates with increased stress and puts people at higher risk of anxiety and mood disorders."

"The event accompanied a collaboration between the Kevin Love Fund and Sony Pictures Animation, where a youth-focused emotional resilience curriculum was developed based on the new animated basketball film, GOAT. It was incredible to see not only substantive content in the dialogue but also the setting. Mental health was not a side event; it was part of the main event of the National Basketball Player Association's official program."

NBA All-Star week included a focused conversation on emotional resilience among players, youth, and industry figures. Kevin Love and Tyree Dillihay gathered participants to address psychological realities of high athletic performance, such as pressures to excel, athlete identity, and vulnerability. The Kevin Love Fund and Sony Pictures Animation collaborated to create a youth emotional-resilience curriculum tied to the animated film GOAT. Mental health was integrated into the NBPA's official programming, signaling a cultural shift away from equating toughness with emotional suppression. Research links long-term emotional suppression to increased stress and higher risk of anxiety and mood disorders.

Read at Psychology Today