National Basketball Association

Milwaukee Bucks: Larry Sanders Deserves Thanks For Speaking Out

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

As former Milwaukee Bucks star Larry Sanders continues to contemplate an NBA future, he deserves thanks for speaking out on something bigger than basketball.

Not for the first time, former Milwaukee Bucks center Larry Sanders recently hinted on Twitter that he might attempt to come back to the NBA.

This hint led to a renewed stream of opinions regarding this possibility, and like every time I hear people discussing a possible Larry Sanders comeback, I ended up getting really angry.

To be clear, I wasn’t angry at Larry Sanders, but rather at all the vitriolic and ignorant comments regarding mental illness that are constantly aimed in his direction.

These types of comments come from a basic misunderstanding of what, for example, depression means as a clinical term.

Sure, people use depressed as a synonym for sad in everyday life, but that then tends to mislead people when they hear that someone is suffering from depression.

Depression is more like being hollowed out, unable to really feel anything at all. No longer being able to muster up the energy to give a damn about the things that are normally important to you.

Therefore, I would like to extend a thank you to Larry Sanders for his courage in discussing what many consider a taboo topic.

I know, from my own battles with depression, how difficult it can be to accept a diagnosis of mental illness, much less to talk about it openly in the way that Larry Sanders did when he left the Milwaukee Bucks.

Mental illness still has major stigma attached to it, and it is often perceived as something that people use as an excuse; an abdication of responsibility on the part of the person who claims to be suffering from it.

It can be very discomfiting to think about something as central to your self as your thoughts and behavior being outside your control. It is much less frightening to think of people suffering from mental illness as choosing to think and feel as they do.

Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Deriding someone who is suffering from mental illness as weak-willed or soft is a way of separating yourself from the possibility of mental illness, dismissing it as something that could happen to you.

The sort of attitude toward mental illness discussed above can be seen on full display in the hyper-masculine show-no-weakness world of professional sport. This naturally discourages athletes from seeking help in dealing with mental health problems. However, leaving depression, or any other mental health problem untreated can cause difficulties both professionally and personally.

According to the Center for Disease Control, from 2009 to 2012, 7.6% of Americans age 12 and over suffered from depression to the extent that it impacted their work and relationships. While it is true that males ages 18 to 39, the demographic that contains nearly all NBA players, suffer from depression at a lower rate, at only 5.8%, which would still mean we could reasonably expect somewhere around 20 or 25 players to be affected. And that is just considering depression! It seems unlikely that mental health does not have an impact on players, yet it is not something that is addressed, either by the league, the teams or the players themselves.

By stepping forward and talking about his own battle with mental illness, Larry Sanders has opened himself up to the scorn and ridicule of many in our society. But he did it nonetheless, and I think that is worth noting.

It just might impact someone’s decision to seek help. It might save someone from suicide. At the very least, it has helped to wipe away a little bit of the stigma attached to mental illness, and for that he has earned my gratitude.