This month, I caught back up with the Kevin Love Fund (KLF), founded by NBA champion and mental health advocate Kevin Love, to discuss its new collaboration with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

The two organizations recently launched Real Talk: Strength in Seeking Support, a free lesson designed to help teen athletes discuss emotional challenges, recognize when they or a teammate may need support, and feel more comfortable asking for help.

The goal of the program is to build team cultures that promote openness around mental health by:

• Helping teen athletes build mental health awareness,
• Strengthening emotional skills, and
• Creating more supportive team environments.

NAMI CEO Daniel Gillison and KLF director of education Ellie Foster, who developed the lesson with NAMI advisors, took a moment to share their thoughts on the new program.

Inside the Program

Foster took me inside the lesson, which incorporates research-backed strategies and expert guidance for destigmatizing conversations about mental health between teammates and coaches.

Foster emphasized the importance of normalizing conversations about mental health through short videos of athletes sharing stories of resilience, which can inspire others and help teens feel less alone. Drawing on research demonstrating the role of educator vulnerability in normalizing emotional discussions on athletic teams, the lesson encourages coaches to model similar openness (Foster, 2023).

The lesson also engages athletes in hands-on activities that allow them to practice expressing their emotions through creative outlets (e.g., writing, creating playlists), which is supported by research on arts-based approaches to supporting mental health (Stuckey & Nobel, 2010).

Ultimately, the lesson encourages athletes to see caring for their mental health and supporting one another as essential parts of being a teammate through asking the following questions:

• How am I really doing?
• What might I notice if a teammate is struggling?
• How can I check in with someone?
• And what can I do if I, myself, need support?

Redefining Strength

Gillison is a former student-athlete himself and wishes he had learned earlier that being strong and asking for help are not opposites.

“Sometimes strength is recognizing when you need help and being willing to ask for it,” he said.

Sport teaches athletes to push through discomfort and not let the team down. But those lessons, when left unchecked, can be harmful.

According to Gillison, the problem comes when athletes see “pushing through” as the only way forward. Showing strength as an athlete can also look like:

• Knowing your limits,
• Recognizing when something isn’t right, and
• Having the courage to ask for help.

He also shared his hope that teen athletes understand that being strong is not just about how they perform, but also about:

• Taking care of yourself,
• Looking out for the people around you, and
• Knowing that none of us has to go through the hard things alone.

Supporting Teammates

I asked Gillison what a teen athlete should do when they recognize that a teammate may be struggling but worry about overreacting or betraying their trust.

He emphasized that teen athletes do not need to have all the answers or know exactly what to say to help a teammate. “Sometimes just showing up can make all the difference,” Daniel shared alongside the following guidance:

• Start by checking in;
• Let your teammate know you’ve noticed something seems different and that you’re there to listen; and
• If you’re concerned about their safety or well-being, reach out to a trusted adult.

Gillison emphasized that this is not about betraying a teammate’s trust, but about looking out for them:

“Being a good friend and a good teammate sometimes means caring enough to speak up when something doesn’t seem right.”

Creating Cultures of Well-Being

We can tell athletes it is OK to ask for help, but the environment has to be safe enough to receive that request.

Gillison shared that, while we put a lot of responsibility on teen athletes to speak up when they are struggling, they will not do so unless they believe that someone will listen and support them in return.

This starts with coaches, parents, and teammates creating an environment where mental health is part of the conversation, not something that only comes up when there’s a crisis. Daniel recommends the following actions:

• Check in,
• Listen without judgment,
• Know where to turn for help, and
• Make sure athletes know that speaking up isn’t going to cost them playing time or change how people see them.

In fact, NAMI’s work with student-athletes has revealed that teens want their parents and coaches to reach out to them with mental health information and resources.

Foster shared that this is one reason the partnership with NAMI is so powerful; it allows athletes to connect with a trusted resource for additional mental health support when they need it, such as NAMI’s Teen & Young Adult Helpline and local resources. Coaches and educators play a crucial role in helping athletes learn about the resources available to them.

“Our lesson with NAMI is designed to begin the conversation about mental health, and we believe that it will contribute to creating a team culture where relying on all of the support in the school and community becomes a normal part of what it means to be an athlete,” said Foster.

The Foundation Is the Same

Storytelling has been central to Love’s advocacy. Foster shared that KLF continues to prioritize creating space for athletes to share their stories of challenge and resilience as a central part of building an athletic culture that supports athlete mental health.

“Most importantly, the lesson underscores that vulnerability is a choice—one athletes can make intentionally, when they are ready,” says Foster.

It was only fitting, then, that I ask Love himself why this partnership means so much to him.

“For a long time, I thought being a good teammate meant keeping whatever I was going through to myself. I worried that if people knew I was struggling, they would see me differently,” he replied.

Love believes that teen athletes today are carrying many of the same fears he did. The lesson aims to give these athletes the words to say they are having a hard time, while also helping the people around them know how to respond.

One of the most powerful aspects of the lesson is that it meets teen athletes where they are and leverages influential people in their own environment (e.g., coaches, educators, athletic communities) to establish cultures where mental health is treated as an essential part of overall well-being and performance.

“I wish I’d understood earlier that you can love your sport, be committed to your team, and still need help. You don’t have to earn that support by playing well.” –Kevin Love