Cavs’ Kevin Love is ESPN’s Arthur Ashe award winner
When Cavaliers forward Kevin Love decided to go public with his mental health and wellness experiences, he admitted he was concerned about putting himself out there, telling the world about panic attacks and anxiety in a first-person essay titled, “Everyone is Going Through Something” on The Players’ Tribune.
“While I thought that through pretty thoroughly, I had spoken to my agent (Jeff Schwartz), and he knows how these things go when people live their life in the open,” Love told USA TODAY Sports. “He totally got it and said, ‘You’re going to open up yourself to a lot of people. A lot of people will be talking about this, and people are going to recognize you for more than basketball. Are you sure you want this?’
“For me, I was done suffering. I was done compartmentalizing and putting it away. I wanted to reveal some things and heal it. As long as you can help just that one kid, it’s going to make all the difference.”
His public revelation has generated a greater focus on health and wellness among NBA players and other athletes and created the Kevin Love Fund aimed at “inspiring people to live their healthiest lives while providing the tools to achieve physical and emotional well-being.”
For his efforts, especially with young people dealing with mental health and wellness, Love will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at Sunday’s 28th ESPY Awards show (9 p.m. ET, ESPN). The award, named after the tennis great, is given each year to a person whose contributions transcend sports.
“I’m incredibly humbled by it,” Love said. “It’s really a profound honor if you look back at that group of men and women who I admire. Billie Jean King, Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, to name a few. It’s very, very humbling to see my name next to those. I just feel like I have so much more work to do. Those are people who put in a lifetime of work. With my name next to theirs, I have an obligation and opportunity to make a lot of change in the world of mental health.
“I know what Arthur Ashe stood for and what he was about, especially being around UCLA. It’s just tough for me even now to put it into words what this means because it’s so much bigger than the realm of sports.”
Past winners also include Eunice Kennedy Shriver, survivors of USA Gymnastics sexual abuse, Robin Roberts, Pat Summitt, Nelson Mandela, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Pat and Kevin Tillman, Cathy Freeman and Jim Valvano.
ESPN senior vice president and editor-at-large of ESPN content Rob King oversees the ESPYs and is impressed with the work Love has done outside of sports. “His story has been truly inspiring since he wrote the piece for The Players’ Tribune and then sat with Jackie MacMullan of ESPN to talk about all he was contending with,” King said. “When we started thinking about what the world is going through and our nation is going through – the degree to which his ability to continue to reach out during the pandemic to audiences and help people – we just thought this was the perfect time to recognize how important speaking his truth and then making it easier for others has become.
“He has not only just talked about mental well-being, he’s really helped folks understand that some of the stereotypical, rub-some-dirt-on-it stuff that athletes, male athletes in particular, are charged with is unnecessary and unhealthy. We thought that this was perfectly in keeping with the tradition of all of the fantastic people who have previously received this honor.”
Love acknowledged his work isn’t finished. His fund works on erasing the stigma, conducting public conversations, research, action and change while working with Head Space, Just Keep Living and Bring Change to Mind.