Thoughts on Ben Simmons’ Mental Health

The problem with the Ben Simmons MH situation is that we don’t make the proper distinction between Mental illness and Mental health. We compare a mental illness to a physical injury, which isn’t quite a legitimate comparison: we then would compare mental health to physical conditioning which isn’t quite right either. When Ben Simmons says he has back soreness from a slipped disk we have a physical condition identified by a doctor. No one argues with if he should be paid. If Ben shows up to training camp and fails a conditioning test, the coach won’t play him until he gets into game shape. Still No one can really argue his contract status because there is an objective measure or at least the coaches subjective measure. With MH we don’t have an objective measure. It’s funny with physical health athletes confidentiality is all but disregarded, because the illusion of transparency helps with this kind of thing and something has to go on the required injury report. But with MH we don’t give a diagnosis on an injury report, so MH is already positioned as a less transparent shadowy thing compared to physical conditions , which makes it seem less legitimate. If Ben says he is too mentally out of shape to play, how does one objectively measure that? Do we leave it to the coaches discretion? Does a psychologist give the all clear?


Underlying all of this is the assumption that athletes want to play and that they will play if only their own bodies , their coaches and the organizations allow them. For whatever reason, with MH issues we don’t make that same assumption. In fact we suspect that when MH is cited, it is the athlete trying to get out of playing. Such is the stigma of MH.


The other side of all of this is that the team and the city of Philadelphia absolutely contributed to a hostile work environment for Ben Simmons. Being forced to work in a hostile work environment would be grounds for a trauma diagnosis of some sort, but in pro sports it is just considered part of the game. It’s not just a hostile crowd, that is not really a controlled factor by the team, but even so it impacts MH. Ben Simmons may absolutely not be in mental condition to perform up to his usual standard on the court. But how do you measure that? Whose call is it o make? Can players push back on the working conditions against abusive coaches or executives on the basis of harassment and hostile work environment evidenced by the development of trauma and stressor related disorders of the details of such are not disclosed?


I still think the most fundamental issue of all of this is how we define mental health. Mental Health has become politically correct (MH is PC) but it is still largely an undefined thing. And even if we do agree on a common definition, We don’t know how to apply MH to athletics. A pulled hammy just takes time to heal. The mental health equivalent would be like grieving a loss, or experiencing disappointment. It takes time and some active treatment. What is the physical injury equivalent of depression? It’s more like diabetes, something you expect and athlete to mange proactively with diet and exercise as a matter of course in being physically prepared to play, although insulin supplements might be required at times.




Another thought is that while MH is rather taboo is sports, teams have been existing the help of psychologists for decades. In the past if athletes had MH issues they always had the opportunity to play through it. Now if MH has to be taken more seriously and regimented by teams and regulated by the league, then we may get to a point where a player having a hard time MH wise is now held out by the team.


Again the conflict of legitimacy vs confidentiality is a major obstacle.