Roy Hibbert opens up about mental health struggles, says Ron Artest inspired him

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/08/06/roy-hibbert-opens-up-about-mental-health-struggles-says-ron-artest-inspired-him/



Roy Hibbert opens up about mental health struggles, says Ron Artest inspired him
Sean Highkin Aug 6, 2015, 11:15 PM EDT




Roy Hibbert has had one of the more confusing NBA careers of the last decade. He’s been a two-time All-Star and for the first half of the 2013-14 season, looked like a legitimate Defensive Player of the Year candidate. But other times, he’s looked lost, especially on offense. His split from the Pacers was ugly — they all but begged him to opt out of his contract and he didn’t, so they traded him to the Lakers. It’s a fresh start for Hibbert, and he’s confident he’ll be able to play with Kobe Bryant.

Hibbert also opened up to ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes about his struggles with mental health, revealing that he’s visited a sports psychologist in the past, inspired by Ron Artest, who famously thanked his psychiatrist after the Lakers’ 2010 title.

“I felt that when [Artest] did that, it kind of opened the doors to make it somewhat OK,” Hibbert says. “I think it was great that he actually did that.”

Mental health is a subject Hibbert doesn’t seem to enjoy discussing. His words come slowly, each carefully chosen. At times, it seems like there’s more he wants to say, but he doesn’t. He has his reasons, which he declines to share. But Hibbert is interested in the field. He says he first visited a psychologist when he boarded at Georgetown Prep, where he was one of the top high-school prospects in the nation.

“I was a black kid in an all-white school, so I had to deal with some of that stress and pressure,” Hibbert told ESPN.com in November 2014. “If I didn’t do that back in high school, I probably wouldn’t be open to it later on.”

He was also an only child, sheltered by two parents who each worked multiple jobs, and admittedly socially awkward, spending much of his time playing video games.

The visits helped Hibbert shed any fear of being labeled as “having a couple of screws loose,” a stubborn perception that persists in the world of sports, in which “mental strength” — however abstract the definition — is fetishized.

In a separate interview with Holmes, Artest (now Metta World Peace) says he’s encouraged by more high-profile NBA players seeking psychological help:

I think it’s cool because when you look at the state of basketball — like how I grew up — basketball was something that helped me relieve some stress. I had a lot of fun, but I brought a lot of my baggage onto the court with me to a place that I loved, which was the basketball court.

And everybody has different issues, good or bad, that they carry with them on the court. It affects you. And for me, it affected me to where sometimes I would be overly aggressive and, in other ways, it would affect people to where they can’t perform on the court. I was always able to perform, but sometimes I would act out and I wanted to see a sports psychologist. Because to me, I didn’t need a psychologist to get my mind right. I needed a psychologist to help me perfect what I love, and I can’t perfect it when I’m on the bench or when I’m getting suspended because I’m playing upset.

That’s why I really had to thank my psychologist, because without her, I would not have been as locked in. Because you’ve got to think about it — I was coming from Houston, where I was averaging 20 a night, and in Indiana. I was also going through depression because I wasn’t in the spotlight as much, because I had Kobe [Bryant], Pau [Gasol] and [Andrew] Bynum, then Lamar [Odom] and [Derek] Fisher and everything. So I wasn’t getting the touches that I was used to, also, so that was very frustrating to me.

However Hibbert fares in Los Angeles, it’s good to see professional athletes be more open about the mental side of the game, and how they can sometimes struggle to get out of their own heads. There has been tremendous progress made in the national conversation around mental health in the past decade, but the stigma of seeing a psychologist still isn’t completely gone, and the more Hibbert and World Peace speak out about it, the faster that will change.



bob
MY NOTE:  Roy Hibbert saying he was inspired by Ron Artest to address his mental health issues is like Josef Stalin saying he was inspired by Adolf Hitler and saying it like he thinks it's a good thing.


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Did Metta World Peace inspire Hibbert's mental health issues or Hibbert's dealing with them?


I guess it doesn't matter; if you have character enough to have a mental breakdown you should have the strength to recover.

As a public high school health teacher for 36 years, I can tell you that there are many, many kids who have mental health issues with most of them going undiagnosed and untreated. Far too many times we only think or worry about physical health issues in our schools. A couple of the things that Hibbert mentioned are only two of a wide variety of factors that can lead to mental health issues in teenagers. At least the two factors he mentioned were not of the violent variety for him.

Sometimes it takes a concerned peer to really help a kid get started in the usually long process of recovering from a mental health issue. Sometimes it is teacher, neighbor, coach, pastor or whomever, but heading toward recovery is usually not something a kid can do on his own. Even when supposedly 'cured', mental health issues can continue to rare their ugly heads over and over in a person's life as they are not like a broken finger that usually heals with no long term effects.

I have never been a fan of Ron Artest as a player, but if Hibbert is publicly thanking Artest for helping him then I will also give Artest a high five for assisting a fellow teammate.

I don't believe Hibbert's saying Artest personally helped him. I believe the knowledge that Artest came out publicly on the issue inspired him. Either way, it's obviously a good thing. If Hibbert has his act together, he could represent a HUGE jump in the rebuilding of the Lakers.

Sam

Sam,

Artest may not have been Hibbert's analyst or psychologist or even his counselor, but if he did get Hibbert to start dealing with his mental health issues he definitely did 'help'.

Clyde,

As I said, "Either way, it's a good thing."

Sam