While public discussion about mental illness has become increasingly common in the United States, previous research has found that having a mental illness diagnosis is assumed to be incompatible with elite athletic success. As explored in hegemonic masculinity scholarship, to be successful, professional male athletes attempt to physically dominate opponents. In 2018, National Basketball Association (NBA) star Kevin Love disclosed having a panic attack during a game as well as living with depression and anxiety. While Love was not the only NBA player to publicly come forward to discuss their mental health experiences, Love is a successful White player in a league where 73.9% of players self-identify as Black or African American. His social location connects his public health discussion to existing scholarship on whiteness, hegemonic masculinity, and mental illness. Love was praised for his willingness to speak about his personal experiences and provide support for others. However, through a critical discourse analysis of sports media coverage of Love’s disclosure and subsequent mental health advocacy, this study reveals that his public discussion was constructed in terms of his identity as a White athlete and constrained by expectations of hegemonic masculinity.
BaumanN. J. (2016). The stigma of mental health in athletes: Are mental toughness and mental health seen as contradictory in elite sport?British Journal of Sports Medicine, 50, 135–136. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2015-095570
3.
BlommaertJ. (2004). Discourse: A critical introduction. Cambridge University Press.
4.
BouvierG.MachinD. (2018). Critical discourse analysis and the challenges and opportunities of social media. Review of Communication, 18(3), 178–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2018.1479881
5.
BrodyE. (2019). With the 249th pick…: Michael Sam and imagining failure otherwise. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 43, 296–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723519840504
6.
BrownW. J.BasilW. D. (1995). Media celebrities and public health: Responses to “Magic” Johnson’s HIV disclosure and its impact on AIDS risk and high-risk behaviors. Health Communication, 74(4), 345–370.
7.
ButterworthM. L. (2008). Race in “The Race”: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and heroic constructions of whiteness. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 24, 228–244. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180701520926
CramerL. (2019). Postracism mythology: NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s “heroic” banishment of racism from the NBA. Communication & Sport, 7, 271–291. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479518769895
DohertyS.HenniganB.CampbellM. J. (2016). The experience of depression during the careers of elite male athletes. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01069
17.
DowB. J. (1997). Politicizing voice. Western Journal of Communication, 61, 243–251.
18.
FaircloughN. (1995). Media discourse. Edward Arnold.
FooteJ. G.ButterworthM. L.SandersonJ. (2017). Adrian Peterson and the “Wussification of America”: Football and myths of masculinity. Communication Quarterly, 65, 268–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2016.1227347
22.
FourneyS.BrownT. (2018). More than a game: Fulfilling expectations and inscriptions in the career of LeBron James. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 42(3&4), 97–112.
JewettR.KerrG.TamminenK. (2019). University sport retirement and athlete mental health: A narrative analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11, 416–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2018.1506497
KristiansenE.BrochT. B. (2013). Athlete-media communication: A theoretical perspective on how athletes use and understand gendered sport communication. In PedersenP. M. (Ed.), Routledge handbook of sport communication (pp. 84–96). Routledge.
31.
LapchickR.EstrellaB.StewartC.GerhartZ. (2018, June26). The 2018 racial and gender report card: The National Basketball Association. https://www.tidesport.org/nba
32.
LavelleK. L. (2010). A critical discourse analysis of black masculinity in NBA game commentary. The Howard Journal of Communications, 21(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2010.3966675
33.
LavelleK. L. (2011). “One of these things is not like the others”: Linguistic representations of Yao Ming in NBA game commentary. International Journal of Sport Communication, 4, 50–69.
LawrenceS. (2016). “We are the boys from the Black Country!” (Re)Imagining local, regional and spectator identities through fandom at Walsall Football Club. Social & Cultural Geography, 17, 282–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2015.1059481
36.
LawrenceS. (2017). A critical race theory analysis of the English premier league. In ElliottR. (Ed.), The English premier league: A socio-cultural analysis (pp. 133–149). Routledge.
LeonardD. J. (2017). Playing while white: Privilege and power on and off the field. University of Washington Press.
39.
LindgrenS.LelievreM. (2009). In the laboratory of masculinity: Renegotiating gender subjectivities in MTV’s Jackass. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 26, 393–410. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295030903325313
MacMullanJ.LoveK. (2018, August24). Kevin Love opens up in exclusive interview about mental health issues in the NBA [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW2LVIp9QcU
46.
ManderscheidR. W.RyffC. D.FreemanE. J.McKnight-EllyL. R.DhingraS.StriveT. W. (2010). Evolving definitions of mental illness and wellness. Preventing Chronic Disease, 7, 1–6. http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2010/Jan/09_0124.htm
47.
McCannM. A. (2014). Do you believe he can fly? Royce White and reasonable accommodations under the Americans with disabilities act for NBA players with anxiety disorder and fear of flying. Pepperdine Law Review, 41, 397–438.
MerzZ. C.PerryJ. E.BrauerA. H.MontgomeryT. L.SchulzeJ.RossM. L. (2020). The cost of mental illness: The public’s derogation of athletes with psychological distress. Stigma and Health, 1–8. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000213
50.
MocarskiR.BillingsA. C. (2014). Manufacturing a Messiah: How Nike and LeBron James co-constructed the legend of King James. Communication & Sport, 2, 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479513481456
PahwaR.FulginitiA.BrekkeJ.RiceE. (2017). Mental illness disclosure decision making. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 87, 575–584.
55.
ParkM. K. (2015). Race, hegemonic masculinity, and the “Linpossible!”: An analysis of media representations of Jeremy Lin. Communication & Sport, 3, 367–389. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479513516854
56.
ParrottS.BillingsA. C.BuzzelliN.ToweryN. (2019). “We all go through it”: Media depictions of mental illness disclosures from star athletes DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love. Communication & Sport. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479519852605
57.
PerskieJ. (Producer)BersteinR. (Producer)(2018, May). Real sports with Bryant Gumbel (Episode 254) [TV series episode]. HBO Sports.
58.
PringleR. G.HickeyC. (2010). Negotiating masculinities via the moral problematization of sport. Sociology of Sport Journal, 27, 115–138. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.27.2.115
59.
ProdyJ. M. (2015). Protesting war and hegemonic masculinity in music videos: Audioslave’s “Doesn’t Remind Me.” Women’s Studies in Communication, 38, 440–461. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2015.1085475
60.
ReardonC. L.FactorR. M. (2010). Sport psychiatry: A systematic review of diagnosis and medical treatment of mental illness in athletes. Sports Medicine, 40, 961–980
61.
RiceS. M.PurcellR.De SilvaS.MawrenD.McGorryP. D.ParkerA. G. (2016). The mental health of elite athletes: A narrative systematic review. Sports Medicine, 46, 1333–1353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0492-2
SchuckR. I. (2019). “I’d just like to let everybody know”: Pete Harnisch on the disabled list and the politics of mental health. In GranoD. A.ButterworthM. L. (Eds.), Sport, rhetoric, and political struggle (pp. 175–189). Peter Lang.
SpracklenK. (2013). Whiteness and leisure. Palgrave Macmillan.
66.
SpracklenK.TimminsS.LongJ. (2010). Ethnographies of the imagined, the imaginary and the critically real: Blackness, whiteness, the north of England and rugby league. Leisure Studies, 29, 397–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2010.523838
67.
SteinfeldtJ. A.Keino MillerI. S.DavidJ. L. (2016). Masculinities in sport: Incorporating heterogeneity into hegemony. In WongY. J.WesterS. R. (Eds.), APA handbook of men and masculinities (pp. 659–681). American Psychological Association.
TrujilloN. (1991). Hegemonic masculinity on the mound: Media representations of Nolan Ryan and American sports culture. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 8, 290–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295039109366799
71.
TwineF. W.GallagerC. A. (2012). Introduction: The future of whiteness: A map of the “third wave.” In GallagherC. A.TwineF. W. (Eds.), Retheorizing race and whiteness in the 21st century: Changes and challenges (pp. 1–20). Routledge.
UphillM.SlyD.SwainJ. (2016). From mental health to mental wealth in athletes: Looking back and moving forward. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00935
