- Earlier this week, 22-year-old Tyrell Terry announced his retirement from the NBA after two seasons out of fear.
- Also this spring, a 21-year-old Ohio State player quit the sport after suffering from suicidal thoughts.
- NBA players Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan work to destigmatize mental health in the NBA.
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Basketball player Tyrell Terry, 22, joined a growing list of young athletes who have stopped competing for mental health reasons.
Terry, who played in the NBA for two years, announced on Instagram that he was retiring from the sport. He said basketball scared him and that he experienced the “darkest times” of his life playing the sport.
“While I’ve achieved amazing success, created unforgettable memories, and made lifelong friends … I’ve also experienced the darkest times of my life,” Terry wrote. “To the point where it started to destroy me instead of build me up.” Where I began to despise and question my worth far more than those around me could ever see or know.”
Terry was a standout player in high school and college. He was one of the top 75 high school players according to his school and won the Kyle Macy Award for Best Division I College Basketball Player during a year at Stanford.
Though he was considered a “bargain” when he was picked 31st in the 2020 NBA draft, Terry’s early career success didn’t translate to professional basketball. He played for the Mavericks for a year before the team dropped him. The Memphis Grizzlies also waived the young player earlier this year.
Terry said he suffered from intrusive thoughts, nausea and difficulty breathing due to his anxiety.
“This is just a brief description of the fear this sport has brought me and while I am grateful for every door it has opened for me, I can no longer continue this fight for something I have fallen in love with. ” he said.
More and more athletes are talking about their mental health
Like Terry, former Ohio State football player Harry Miller retired from playing after spending three years with the team. Per ESPN, Miller, too, was a high school standout and five-star recruit before joining the Buckeyes in 2019.
Miller, 21, when he quit football, said in a tweet that he had suicidal thoughts and hurt himself.
—Harry Miller (@h_miller76) March 10, 2022
“I’m grateful for the infrastructure that Coach Day has created in Ohio State and I’m grateful that he’s letting me find a new way to help others in the program,” Miller said. “Without him and the staff, my words would not be a reflection. They would be evidence in an autopsy.”
Young athletes Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka retired from competitions early due to mental health concerns.
Biles, the highest-grossing gymnast of all time at 25, withdrew from the all-around final at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics after speaking out about stress.
“It was really stressful at those Olympics … it was a long week, a long Olympic process, a long year,” Biles said, according to ESPN’s Michele Steele. “I think we’re a little too stressed — we’re supposed to be having fun out here, and that’s just not the case.”
“Coming out of here, I was like, no, the mental isn’t there,” she added. “I had to let the girls do it.”
Naomi Osaka, also 25, withdrew from the French Open last year after feeling “vulnerable and anxious”. She also revealed she has been struggling with depression since 2018, when the crowd booed when she defeated Serena Williams in a controversial match.
NBA players engage in dialogue about the mental toll of the sport
Terry’s NBA colleague Kevin Love said he walked out of a game in 2017 after suffering a panic attack.
Love said in an article for Player’s Tribune his mouth had become dry and he was having trouble breathing in the middle of a game against the Atlanta Hawks.
“I freaked out. As I got up to get out of the scrum, I knew I couldn’t get back into the game — I literally couldn’t physically do it,” the Cleveland Cavaliers player wrote.
Love appeared alongside Bulls star DeMar DeRozan in a 2018 video to advocate for mental wellbeing in the NBA.
“Never be ashamed of wanting to be a better person,” DeRozan said.
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