NBA All-Star Kevin Love has revealed he suffered a panic attack during a game this season as he seeks to bring attention to mental health issues.

In an article for the Players’ Tribune, the Cleveland Cavaliers star said he suffered the attack during a game against the Atlanta Hawks in November.

“I was having trouble catching my breath,” wrote Love. “It’s hard to describe, but everything was spinning, like my brain was trying to climb out of my head. The air felt thick and heavy. My mouth was like chalk. I remember our assistant coach yelling something about a defensive set. I nodded, but I didn’t hear much of what he said. By that point, I was freaking out. When I got up to walk out of the huddle, I knew I couldn’t reenter the game – like, literally couldn’t do it physically.

“Coach Lue came up to me. I think he could sense something was wrong and blurted something like, ‘I’ll be right back,’ and I ran back to the locker room ... The next part was a blur. Someone from the Cavs accompanied me to the Cleveland Clinic. They ran a bunch of tests. Everything seemed to check out, which was a relief. But I remember leaving the hospital thinking, ‘Wait ... then what the hell just happened?’”

Love said he has since started seeing a therapist and was afraid to reveal his story out of fear of being seen as “weak or weird or somehow less reliable as a team-mate.” The 29-year-old, who won the NBA title with the Cavs in 2016, said he had been inspired to talk about the panic attack after the Toronto Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan discussed his struggles with depression last week.

“I’ve played against DeMar for years, but I never could’ve guessed that he was struggling with anything,” said Love. “It really makes you think about how we are all walking around with experiences and struggles... and we sometimes think we’re the only ones going through them. The reality is that we probably have a lot in common with what our friends and colleagues and neighbors are dealing with. So I’m not saying everyone should share all their deepest secrets – not everything should be public and it’s every person’s choice. But creating a better environment for talking about mental health … that’s where we need to get to.”

It is unclear whether the panic attacks had anything to do with an incident in January when Love left a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with an unspecified illness. ESPN reported at the time that several Cavaliers players doubted the veracity of Love’s reasons for leaving the game.

Love has been sidelined since the end of January with a broken hand but is expected to return in the next month.



