Page 18 - ARUBA TODAY

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Thursday 8 March 2018
Cavs' Love discloses bouts with panic attacks, mental health

By TOM WITHERS happened and burdened supposed to act,” he said.
AP Sports Writer about people finding out. “You learn what it takes to
CLEVELAND (AP) — Suf- Although he did not men- ‘be a man.’ It’s like a play-
fering for years in silence, tion it in his essay, titled "Ev- book: Be strong.
Kevin Love has opened eryone Is Going Through Don’t talk about your feel-
up about his struggles with Something," Love left a ings. Get through it on your
mental health. Jan. 20 game against own. So for 29 years of my
The Cavaliers forward Oklahoma City under simi- life, I followed that play-
writes in an essay for the lar circumstances. He also book.”
Players' Tribune that he had missed the team's prac- The Cavs encouraged
a panic attack during a tice the following day. Love to see a therapist and
game this season and he Those absences prompted he gets counseling a few
has spent most of his life the now infamous heated times a month when the
afraid to accept there was team meeting in which team is at home.
something wrong with him. former teammate Isaiah Love said he drew cour-
"For 29 years, I thought Thomas and others ques- age to go public with his
about mental health as In this Nov. 5, 2017, file photo, Cleveland Cavaliers' Kevin Love tioned why Love had been issues after Toronto All-Star
someone else's problem," (0) looks to pass against Atlanta Hawks' Taurean Prince (12) in excused. DeMar DeRozan’s recently
he said. the first half of an NBA basketball game in Cleveland. The exchange led to tense acknowledged he has had
Love says he was stricken Associated Press days around the Cavs, who bouts of depression. Af-
with anxiety Nov. 5 during rebuilt their roster by trad- ter playing against DeRo-
a home game against the "It's hard to describe, but thing about a defensive ing Thomas and four other zan for years, Love said he
Atlanta Hawks. Love adds everything was spinning, set. I nodded, but I didn't players before the dead- would have never guessed
that he had been under like my brain was trying to hear much of what he said. line. one of the game’s best
family stress and hadn't climb out of my head," said By that point, I was freaking Love’s father, Stan, also players was having prob-
been sleeping well. After Love, a five-time All-Star out." played in the NBA. Kevin lems similar to his own.
briefly being winded while now sidelined after break- Love was taken to the Love says he always strug- “The reality is that we prob-
playing 15 minutes in the ing his left hand last month. Cleveland Clinic, but tests gled with the stigma at- ably have a lot in common
first half, he felt his heart "The air felt thick and didn't reveal anything ab- tached to an athlete who with what our friends and
racing and couldn't catch heavy. My mouth was like normal. He returned to shows weakness. colleagues and neighbors
his breath during a timeout chalk. I remember our as- playing at a high level, “Growing up, you figure out are dealing with,” Love
in the third quarter. sistant coach yelling some- but was puzzled by what really quickly how a boy is wrote. q

WOODS point. "Anybody else outside of
Continued from Page 17 In some respects, he is start- golf, you're still doing what
They went eagle-birdie- ing over. This is his fourth you know you're better at
birdie or something like that PGA Tour event since re- than them," he said. "When
to start. I thought, 'Man, turning from a fourth back you're on the tee with
this must be what it's been surgery, and it was only six someone like Tiger who you
like for the last 20 years for months ago that Woods have grown up watching
guys." wasn't even certain he him dominate the sport ...
Spieth made a hole-in-one would be able to play it's something that you just
that day on the 12th hole. again at a high level. kind of get used to, I guess.
He has played with Woods He is making progress. He Am I totally used to it? No."
seven times since, includ- finished seven shots be- The last time they played
ing the third round of the hind at Torrey Pines (a tie was at the Phoenix Open
British Open at Hoylake, for 23rd) and eight shots in 2015, when Woods was
and Woods has never had behind at the Honda Clas- a mess with his short game.
the lower score in those oc- sic (12th). In between, he Spieth shot 68 in the second
casions. missed the cut at Riviera, round to get into weekend
They play again Thursday which is one reason he is at Tiger Woods looks at his cellphone on the back nine at Innis- condition. Woods shot 82
in the opening round of the Innisbrook for the first time. brook's Copperhead course during the pro-am at the Valspar and missed the cut.
Championship golf tournament, Wednesday, March 7, 2018, in
Valspar Championship. "I only got two rounds in Palm Harbor, Fla But this is a different Tiger.
"I'll feel probably more ner- LA. I missed the cut there," Associated Press "I haven't seen a whole lot
vous on the first tee tomor- Woods said. "I felt really of him the last few years
row than I do on the first tee strong afterward. After more patient, and that the Florida swing suddenly since he's been hurt and
normally, just given the set- playing Honda and re- much was true when he has some serious star pow- trying to come back," Spi-
ting," Spieth said. ally feeling good about it, checked on his statistics for er. The field includes Rory eth said. "But we all hope
The setting is Woods return- I wanted to push myself in the year. Woods said he McIlroy for the first time, for that Sunday afternoon
ing to golf, and while it is my practice sessions, which couldn't find any because along with Henrik Stenson pairing alongside all us
nothing new at this point, it I did; push myself in the gym he hasn't played enough to and Justin Rose, Adam young guys. We want that
is no less the attraction. He a little bit. And I can handle be listed. Scott and Masters cham- chance to be able to bat-
has never played the Val- two weeks in a row." "I've only played 10 rounds," pion Sergio Garcia. Stenson tle it out with him on Sun-
spar Championship, and He also will play next week he said. "I know people are will join Woods and Spieth day. I know he wants that,
the last time he was at Innis- at Bay Hill, meaning four saying that I've been errat- for the opening two rounds. too, to show us what he's
brook before this week was tournaments in five weeks ic, little inconsistent. But 10 Spieth isn't one to get in- done to other people.
in 1996 for a mixed-team as he prepares for the Mas- rounds, it's not that many. timidated. One exception "Even if it's not 2000 Tiger,
event during the silly sea- ters. ... That's basically how my was playing with former it's still Tiger on a Sunday,"
son that no longer exists. There is a tendency to comeback has been so far President George W. Bush, he said. "And that's some-
Woods was nine tourna- judge Woods' progress by this year. I haven't played a but that tee shot and sub- thing that would be an ex-
ments (and two victories) each shot, each round, lot." sequent round of golf was perience we haven't had
into his pro career at that each week. He is a little The sleepy tournament in easy. before."q