Earlier this week, star guard John Wall made the stunning admission that he contemplated suicide after he ruptured his Achilles and lost his mother and grandmother in very short succession.
John Wall says he thought about committing suicide
"Darkest place I ever been in. At one point in time, I thought about committing suicide. Tearing my Achilles, my mom being sick, my mom passing, my grandma passing a year later. All this in the midst of COVID at the same time." pic.twitter.com/6LE2N3DzM1
— Ahn Fire Digital (@AhnFireDigital) August 30, 2022
Without a doubt, it took a lot of bravery for Wall to admit something so personal. Unsurprisingly, a lot of fans and players have come forward to show Wall a lot of support.
Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love made sure to speak out in support of Wall. As Cavs fans know very well, Love has been at the forefront of the mental health conversation in the NBA for many years.
Back in 2018, Love penned a heartfelt and deeply honest essay where he opened up about a lot.
The essay, which was titled “Everyone Is Going Through Something,” gave Love the opportunity to detail his struggles with anxiety and panic attacks. At the time, sports athletes talking about their own mental health challenges was quite rare.
“My agent said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’” Love remembered recently, according to Forbes. “I’m like, ‘Listen, I don’t know what’s going to happen on the other side of this, but I feel like it’ll help someone. Somebody needs to hear this. The simplest way I can put it is by using a sports reference – we’re all on the same team, and we all want to be on the winning side of history. By sharing (my story), I think it establishes hope that we all can heal, and we can all get better.’
“But none of that happens without having these conversations.”
Now, mental health is a much less polarizing topic in sports. Stars like Dak Prescott, DeMar DeRozan, Naomi Osaka and many more have joined Love in the fight to normalize speaking about mental health issues in professional sports.
Wall is the latest athlete to make it clear that struggles on and off the court can lead to serious mental issues. Luckily, his willingness to discuss those troubles is a big sign that he has either moved past that dark time or is working very hard to work past it.
Wall sat out the 2021-22 NBA season in the hopes that he would be traded by the Houston Rockets. Earlier this summer, he joined the Los Angeles Clippers.
He’s played just 40 games over the last three seasons. Surely, returning to the court will help him on his own mental health journey.
