NBA emphasizes mental health as teams await Disney ‘bubble’

Jrue Holiday expects basketball to be easy part.  Pelicans guard will be living in NBA’s “bubble” when 22 teams gar near Orlando, Florida, this month to resume ir suspended season. Holiday’s wife, Lauren, a former U.S. national team soccer player, is pregnant with couple’s second child at a time when much of society has been shut down by coronavirus pandemic. veteran New Orleans player might be away from home for more than a month.

Meanwhile, Memphis rookie Ja Morant expects to miss his daughter’s first birthday next month. Boston’s Gordon Hayward may leave team when his fourth child is born in September. And players like Washington’s Bradley Beal and Portland’s Damian Lillard wonder how intense NBA restrictions on player movement will be received.

se are but a few examples of why NBA, its teams and players’ union are making mental health and wellness resources available to players w and once y arrive at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.

“It is going to leave guys with a lot of time on ir own, and challenges with families, newborns and whatever else y have going on in ir personal lives are going to be magnified because y’re going to be in confined s for prolonged periods of time,” said William Parham, a Loyola Marymount psychology professor and director of National Basketball Players Association’s mental health and wellness program. “re’s way around it, so I would anticipate some increased anxiety, some increased tension, some increased restlessness.”

re will be fans at Disney. re also will be restrictions on where players can go, plus rules keeping families away until at least second round of playoffs. hope is to significantly limit exposure to COVID-19 inside bubble.  Even under rmal circumstances, Holiday sees family time as a cherished respite. Life at Disney will clearly complicate that.

“This is one of mental parts about it that guys have to adjust to, where someone like me, I go home and it’s where I kind of relax,” Holiday said. “I try my best t to bring my work home with me so I can hang out with my wife, my dog, and my daughter and I can do things like that. ... I think that’s going to be a little bit of a challenge, especially after like seven to 10 days.”

Likewise, Beal said living in bubble will hardly be “a walk in park.” “We can’t just leave. We can’t just order whatever food we want. We can’t just do activities we want to do. We can’t go to our teammates’ rooms,” Beal said. “You’re restricted, and you can’t do things that you’re rmally used to doing.”

Pelicans’ mental health and wellness program is led by team psychologist Jenna Rosen, and New Orleans general manr David Griffin calls it “critical.” “Let’s t kid ourselves. This quarantine situation is going to be very difficult,” Griffin said. “We will work through mindfulness training with Jenna literally every day. ... It’s going to be about who can keep mselves in best frame of mind, quite frankly.”

Mental health has been a priority for NBA and NBPA, especially after players like Cleveland’s Kevin Love and San Antonio’s DeMar DeRozan opened up about ir inner struggles. DeRozan kws it won’t be easy at Disney.

“It’s tough,” he said. “You’re taking guys who’ve been with ir families every single day for last few months and all of a sudden separating everybody into this one confined and taking away a lot of joyful things that we do outside of basketball.” Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has played for Greece’s national team, said being away for three weeks during international tournaments was challenging. This trip to Disney could last three months if Bucks make NBA Finals.

“t being able to see your family, being re for three months, playing games with fans, it’s going to be mental,” Antetokounmpo said. “You’ve got to push yourself through this.” Daniel Medina, Wizards’ chief of athletic care and performance, said some players are concerned that an interrupted season might make m more prone to injury, which could be career-altering to players with expiring contracts. Some have decided t to play, tably Indiana’s Victor Oladipo.

Parham, who helped launch NBPA’s mental health program in 2018, expects many players to handle resumption well. He ted that after three months of relative isolation at home, y’ll be er to satisfy ir appetite for competition.

Still, unprecedented nature of bubble, born out of a pandemic blamed for about a half-million deaths worldwide, will present challenges. Ar issue, Parham said, is how restart coincides with political and social upheaval spawned by death of George Floyd, a Black man, while in police custody.

“Prior to COVID, and prior to se social justice demonstrations, re were sufficient daily distractions for people to t really even think about ir stuff. y were just sort of on automatic pilot,” Parham said. “You kw what y say: A person will never see ir reflection in running water. It is only when water is still that ir reflected im begins to emerge.”