- Earlier this week, Tyrell Terry, 22, announced his retirement from the NBA after two seasons due to anxiety.
- This spring, a 21-year-old Ohio State player also left the sport after suffering from suicidal ideation.
Basketball player Tyrell Terry, 22, joined a growing list of young athletes who stopped competing for mental health reasons.
Terry, who played two years in the NBA, announced on Instagram he will retire from the sport. He said basketball caused him anxiety, and he experienced the "darkest times" of his life while playing the sport.
"While I have achieved amazing accomplishments, created unforgettable memories, and made lifelong friends…I've also experienced the darkest times of my life," Terry wrote." To the point where instead of building me up, it began to destroy me. Where I began to despise and question the value of myself, much more than those surrounding me could ever see or know."
Terry was a standout player in high school and college. He was one of the top 75 high school players, according to his school, and won the Kyle Macy Award for the best Division I college freshman basketball player during a one-year stint at Stanford.
Though considered a "steal" when he was selected 31st overall in the 2020 NBA draft, Terry's early career success did not translate to professional basketball. He played for the Mavericks for one year before the team waived him. The Memphis Grizzlies also waived the young player earlier this year.
Terry said he experienced intrusive thoughts, nausea, and trouble breathing due to his anxiety.
"This is just a brief description of the anxiety this sport has caused me, and while I'm grateful for every door it has opened for me, I can't continue this fight any longer for something I have fallen out of love with," he said.
More athletes are speaking out about their mental health
Like Terry, former Ohio State football player Harry Miller retired from playing after spending three years on the team. Per ESPN, Miller, too, was a standout high school athlete and a five-star recruit before joining the Buckeyes in 2019.
Miller, 21 when he quit football, said in a tweet that he experienced suicidal ideation and engaged in self harm.
—Harry Miller (@h_miller76) March 10, 2022
"I am grateful for the infrastructure Coach Day has put in place at Ohio State, and I am grateful that he is letting me find a new way to help others in the program," Miller said. "If not for him and the staff, my words would not be a reflection. They would be evidence in a post-mortem."
Young athletes Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka withdrew from competitions early, citing mental health reasons.
Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all-time at 25, pulled out of the all-around final at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after speaking out about stress.
"It's been really stressful this Olympic games... it's been a long week, a long Olympic process, a long year," Biles said, per ESPN's Michele Steele. "I think we're a little too stressed out — we should be out here having fun and that's just not the case."
"Once I came out here, I was like, no the mental is not there," she added. "I had to let the girls do it."
Naomi Osaka, also 25, withdrew from the French Open last year after feeling "vulnerable and anxious." She also revealed she's struggled with depression since 2018, when the crowd booed as she beat Serena Williams in a contentious match.
NBA players are starting a dialogue about the sport's mental toll
Terry's fellow NBA player Kevin Love said he left a game in 2017 after suffering a panic attack.
Love, stating in an article for Player's Tribune, said his mouth went dry and he had trouble breathing in the middle of a game against the Atlanta Hawks.
"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," the Cleveland Cavaliers player wrote.
Love appeared alongside Bulls star DeMar DeRozan in a 2018 video to advocate for mental wellness in the NBA.
"Never be ashamed of wanting to be a better you," DeRozan said.