Watch: Kevin Love Addresses About His Battle With Anxiety on the Today Show
Kevin Love is one of the very few athletes who talk about their condition. He’s got anxiety, and was actually the first to open the topic.
Kevin Love published an article about his battle with anxiety in The Players’ Tribune. He’s one of the most vocal NBA players to open up about their mental health issue. Team owners requested access to their players’ mental health records, and Love just went onto TODAY Show to talk about his anxiety attacks.
Watch @kevinlove's full interview with @CarsonDaly about his battle with anxiety. @NBA pic.twitter.com/tgmHRXvzRa
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 20, 2018
“I had a moment where I thought I was going to die. I had never experienced something like that. I thought I was having a heart attack… heart racing and I was running around looking for something that I couldn’t find. I just wanted to get air. I ended up unconscious on the floor. [My teammates] had text me after the game and had no idea what happened. So I had just kind of brushed it off because in our sport or in life and being a man, you’re taught to suppress it — you’re taught to, in a lot of ways, suffer in silence,” Love explained.
Love also talked about the anxiety attack that happened during the Cavs game against the Atlanta Hawks in November. He explained more about the attack in his essay. “It was like my body was trying to say to me, ‘You’re about to die.’”
The player was getting a lot of support from people around him. His former teammate LeBron James noticed him. “We sat towards the end of the bus. James king of said, ‘Hey, do you have a moment?’ He stopped me, shook my hand, looked me in the eye, and said, ‘You helped a lot of people today. It’s important,’” Love explained. The dialogue between him and LeBron happened after he opened up.