T
he players spoke, and the NBA Players Association listened. Now, everyone who plays the game and watches the game
is benefitting. In recent seasons, several NBA stars have begun privately and publicly discussing their experiences with
mental illness, highlighting their struggles and urging others to seek care when needed.
In response, the NBA Players Association launched its Mental Health and Wellness Program in May 2018. Leaders
Dr. William Parham and former player Keyon Dooling have established a network of psychologists working in every
NBA city. They’ve created a players-only informational website and a hotline, and they’re developing a newsletter, a
podcast and an app to provide players with access to mental health resources and several entry points to confidential treatment
and support.
SLAM spoke with Dr. Parham and Dooling separately about their groundbreaking work, the need to treat players as people
before performers and the impact players are having on broader discussions of mental health in America.
The following conversations were edited for clarity. Read the longer versions at SLAMonline.com. —Ed.SLAM:How did you get involved in the
NBA and where did the specific idea for
this position come from?
WP: When this position came up, I had
been doing some ongoing consulting
with the NBA and the NBPA. And
simultaneous to that, in the last number
of years there have been a number of
marquee basketball players who have
come out with their struggles. Kevin
Love, DeMar DeRozan, Kelly Oubre, a
couple of coaches. There are probably in
this current crop about 15 athletes. But
the mental health and wellness alarm
has been sounding for many, many years.
And for me, in my observation, it’s no
accident that all of these disclosures are
coming out at the time of what I would
call identity reclamation movements. In
other words, when you look at #MeToo,
when you look at Black Lives Matter, just
as two examples, those are movements
where people are basically saying, “I’ve
had enough, I’m not going to take this
anymore. We need to reclaim our identity
and who we are as people.”
SLAM:Can you walk me through the
logistics of how a player gets help if they
contact you?
WP: I or Keyon might have an initial
outreach. We certainly would refer them
to one of our identified resource persons.
And depending on what the complexity of
their story is, we would come up with a
series of interventions that long-term
could really help the person recalibrate
themselves back to where he needs to be.
SLAM:Your mantra is addressing the
player before the performer, but those two
are linked, right? Treating mental illness
and trauma should lead to better
performance on the court, shouldn’t it?
WP: Everybody in the world has baggage.So there are only two questions on the
proverbial table: What’s packed inside
and how many pieces of luggage are
you carrying? With that aside, if in fact
these ballers are carrying around some
significant baggage—some of them
who are playing at Hall of Fame levels
of talent on a consistent basis—what
would happen if you were to provide a
place and a space for them to drop
some of that baggage, and to begin
healing? They would then in fact have
increased success.
[Traumatic] experiences that happen
at single digit age, that are very emo-
tionally laden, what people—both men
and women—develop with those early
traumas, is akin to what I now call the
invisible tattoos of trauma. Many people
are walking around with invisible tattoos,
incentivized to keep it hidden, but none-
theless it’s something that they need to
integrate into their life’s journey as they
negotiate their trajectory.
SLAM:And when you have Keyon and
Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan making
those tattoos visible, they make it clear
that other people can do the same and be
supported and still exist in the League.
WP: They are members of an elite frater-
nity of ballers who distinguish them-
selves, whose vulnerability mirrors how
much stronger they actually are, not how
weak they are.The Player
Keyon Dooling
NBA, 2000-2013
Player Wellness Counselor, NBPASLAM:Do you encourage players to tell
their stories?
KD: I don’t encourage anyone to tell their
stories. I encourage people to get help.
And in that healing process, you’ll be
empowered enough to tell what you’ve
experienced. Or share it. Or not. It’s
totally a personal choice. I don’t think ev-eryone has to share their experience, but
I do want them to heal from what they’ve
had to endure and what they go through
on a daily basis.
SLAM:But people talking about it helps
normalize it, right? And makes it easier for
others to get help?
KD: Yeah it does. If we tear an MCL
or an ACL or if we go down with a phys-
ical injury, people are very sympathetic
toward it. But if you go through some-
thing mentally or emotionally, you know,
in the past historically there’ve been
some very negative stigmas associated
with that. I think we’ve
gotten past that. I think we’re more
aware about our mental and emotional
health nowadays.
SLAM:Speaking to stigma—a lot of that,
especially in sports, is around masculinity,
right? You’re working in these hyper-mas-
culine environments that typically tell
men not to talk about these things. How
much does that affect your work?
KD: It’s a sport of a lot of machismo, a
sport with a lot of ego and competition,
so obviously there’s going to be some
masculine energy there. But I don’t think
it starts in sports. Though I think, you
know in the past, sports-related mental
or emotional problems were weakness,
and so I think a lot of people mask their
pain in silence. But I also think it’s a
society problem. As a man, we’re told to
shut up. Don’t cry. Suck it up. Be tough.
What it does is it programs us to
internalize things.
SLAM:Another stigma is the race aspect.
Because in African-American communi-
ties, mental health stigma tends to be
stronger, and the League is mostly black.
Does that shape how you approach
players?
KD: Yeah, I do think you have to consider
the cultural connections around mental
health. Look, for the African-American
experience, it’s been varied generational-
ly. The resources around mental health++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Doctor
Dr. William D. Parham, Ph.D,
ABPP, Director of Mental Health and
Wellness, NBPASLAMONLINE.COM 71