General

Do We Even Know How to Talk About Beasley?

Aug 25, 2009, 7:11 PM UTC

Forgetâ†µTwitter, or weed, or whether teams really should draft for characterâ†µabove all else. As of now, all we know for sure is that Michael Beasleyâ†µwas depressed, and checked into a facility seeking treatment for thisâ†µcondition.
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â†µA euphemism, maybe, and we could still learn that drugs or alcohol wereâ†µinvolved. But there’s a reason why most people, including myself,â†µimmediately pounced on the rehab/weed correlation, and it wasn’t just aâ†µcertain famous photo.
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â†µAs a society, we still don’t know how to talk about mental illness. Especially when athletes are involved. â†µ
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â†µThere’s a ready-made template for stories of addiction and recovery.â†µAnd no matter what your feelings on pot’s relative harmlessness,â†µprofessional athletes have to go through the motions of penitenceâ†µwhenever they’re inextricably linked to big bags of green.
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â†µBut when athletes are confronted with depression, not only do they haveâ†µtrouble seeking treatment—as fans and media, we’re stuck dealing withâ†µan exceptionally tricky issue, one that’s at once a matter of scienceâ†µand something that millions of people take very personally.â†µ
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â†µWhile there has been something of a thaw in recent years, athletesâ†µhave been notoriously reluctant to seek treatment. That’s becauseâ†µthey’re expected to be tough in the brain, have nerves of steel andâ†µknow all about facing the pressures of celebrity.
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â†µOn and off the field, the life they’ve chosen isn’t an easy one, butâ†µit’s one they pride themselves on having mastered. That’s the publicâ†µface of it, at least. Anyone with his brain turned on can see how proâ†µathletes would be subjected to incredible amounts of stress. Especiallyâ†µwhen things aren’t going their way.â†µ
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That’sâ†µpart of the mystery of Michael Beasley. He’s a 20-year-old facingâ†µenormous expectations; we’ve seen other youngsters, like Greg Oden, seek out help for these reasons.â†µAnd yet in Beasley’s case, his depression—as of now, the only confirmedâ†µproblem he’s dealing with—required his checking into a womb-like rehabâ†µcenter.
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â†µDo I know what the Heat forward is thinking or feeling? No, and yetâ†µthis move is certainly an extreme one. Compare it with, say, Oden’sâ†µtreatment. The similarly eccentric Delonte West missed some games atâ†µthe beginning of 2008-09, and admitted problems with depression.â†µBut that wasn’t nearly the national crisis Beasley’s turned into. If weâ†µtry and apply any across-the-board standard, Beasley suddenly looksâ†µreally sick.â†µ
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â†µMaybe that’s the case. Maybe Beasley really is an acute case. Orâ†µmaybe, given how little we’re willing to talk frankly about theseâ†µissues—whether with regard to athletes or in our own lives—the nuclearâ†µoption seems like the only obvious path.â†µ
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â†µUltimately, this may tell us more about ourselves than aboutâ†µBeasley’s state of mind. What looked like the Summer of Race is ending,â†µat least in the NBA world, on an even more awkward note.
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â†µThis country doesn’t like talking about race, or gender. But at leastâ†µthese issues of identity, policy and culture are out in the open.â†µTrying to discuss, or negotiate, mental illness, though, is likeâ†µwandering through a minefield in the dark. People are hesitant to “out”â†µthemselves. So this very personal issue, which prompts very personalâ†µreactions, is reduced to a strictly medical topic.
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â†µForget the ways in which it flies in the face of the athleteâ†µstereotype; it’s virtually impossible to even broach the subjectâ†µwithout knowing whose toes you might be stepping on—or being able toâ†µreveal that your opinion deserves special attention. That’s why thoseâ†µdealing with it feel so alone and why these stories explode likeâ†µMichael Beasley’s has.
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â†µGiven the sheer number of adults dealing with some kind of depressionâ†µ(check the sales sheets on SSRIs), it’s absurd that the condition isâ†µstill in any way exotic or sensational. While it raises some of theâ†µsame kind of complexities as race or gender do, especially in the wayâ†µothers perceive it, depression’s just a fact of life.
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â†µPerhaps the real takeaway from (what we know of) Beasley’s situation isâ†µhow little it resembles all cliches about depression. It came as aâ†µtotal shock, even to those around him, and seems totally at odds withâ†µhis whimsical personality. But if only the conversation about mentalâ†µillness were more public, we’d be ready to accept either this kind ofâ†µscenario or Oden’s offseason tune-up. Especially when, God forbid, itâ†µhappens to us or those around us.
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