Naomi Osaka is kind of a hero. She’s been upfront and open about her mental health issues and the role that fans play in that. She’s been completely real while under attack from fans and the media alike. She’s done remarkably well speaking out for herself and those like her in a solo sport, and for that I thank her. The key here, however, is solo sport. In a team sport like basketball or football or the myriad other sports in which you need your people there and working together day in and day out, mental health issues can be a liability. The same way it sucks to have a player go down with injury only to worry they may no longer be reliable and become injury prone, you can look at mental health issues in the same vein. I say this to argue that teams need to think about this when they sign a player.
I think they do think about it. I think they consider it and immediately, in most cases, dismiss mental issues as being not relevant to what the players are being asked to do. I think that is a huge mistake, because the mental rigors of professional athletics and the media and fan assault are enough to break a mentally healthy person let alone someone who is sick. When they are sick and they break we go after them harder, and that is what sucks the worst.