Karl-Anthony Towns is 10 days from the Knicks’ banner-raising night, but the All-Star center used World Mental Health Day to speak about a loss that still shapes his life and his relationship with basketball.
At Project Healthy Minds’ Saturday event in New York, Towns described the grief that followed his mother’s death from COVID-19 complications six years ago. He has changed teams, reached the conference finals and helped deliver an NBA championship to the club he rooted for as a kid, yet said he remains in that grieving process.
Before the opening game of this season’s NBA Finals, Towns said he felt an unexpected stillness. It took him back to youth games, when the crowds were small enough that he could always find his mother in the stands.
“It felt like it was me, her and basketball,” Towns said. “The court was my canvas, and I could create something for her — showing my love for the game and the love she taught me to share with the world.”
Basketball did not always feel the same
Towns said the sport became empty in the aftermath of his mother’s death. There was a point when he questioned whether he wanted to continue playing at all.
He found support through Arnie Kander, the veteran strength and wellness coach. Towns said the value came in being able to speak freely with someone he trusted, unload the pain and better identify what he was feeling.
“Every conversation made me feel lighter,” Towns said.
That openness was central to the Project Healthy Minds program, which brought athletes, entertainers and mental-health advocates together for a day of discussions, yoga and art therapy. The nonprofit also operates a free digital directory that helps users locate therapists, psychiatrists, support groups and other care options.
A changing conversation around athletes
Rich Kleiman, the Boardroom CEO, Kevin Durant’s longtime manager and a new Project Healthy Minds board member, joined Towns onstage. Kleiman said professional athletes have become more conscious of mental health, even if the subject is still not routinely discussed inside locker rooms.
He pointed to DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love as important early voices in the modern NBA conversation. DeRozan publicly addressed depression eight years ago, while Love later wrote about his anxiety. Kleiman said he and Love once spent hours talking about their own anxiety attacks.
Kleiman said not every player will want to repeatedly tell a personal story in public, but Towns’ willingness to do so just before a new season carries weight.
“Athletes reach an enormous number of people,” Kleiman said. “For Karl to be this open heading into the season says plenty.”
Project Healthy Minds CEO Phil Schermer said athletes can influence how people define strength. In his view, players who talk honestly about emotion can show fans that vulnerability and success do not conflict.
“We need more men, especially figures people see as strong, who are willing to be vulnerable,” Schermer said. “That kind of honesty can help fuel their best work.”
Beyond the box score
The sports-centered programming also included former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall and Gotham FC forward Midge Purce. Marshall, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, publicly disclosed his borderline personality disorder diagnosis in 2011. He said therapy helped him understand how to connect with his own mind, and he began holding sessions in a cafeteria so others would see there was no shame in seeking help.
Purce said her definition of toughness has changed. Raised by her father, she grew up believing toughness meant never crying. Her teammates helped her understand that sadness and frustration are normal emotions, she said.
For Purce, toughness is not the absence of feeling. It is carrying those emotions while continuing to move forward.
The organization plans to expand its work in sports through initiatives that have not yet been announced. Project Healthy Minds has also used cultural partnerships to reach new audiences, including a summer collaboration with the Broadway production “Every Brilliant Thing.” The one-person play, performed at different points by Daniel Radcliffe, Mariska Hargitay and Tracee Ellis Ross, follows a narrator making a list of reasons for his struggling mother to keep living.
Schermer sees live sports as a particularly useful gathering place at a time when much of the media experience is fragmented. He pointed to the Knicks’ championship run as one of the rare moments when a broad public locked into the same event.
Rachel Janfaza, founder of Gen Z research firm The Up and Up, said the Knicks’ postseason and the World Cup gave younger people opportunities to build face-to-face community after the isolation of the pandemic. Joining author Jonathan Haidt and The TAG Movement CEO Alexa Arnold in another discussion, Janfaza said schools, employers and other institutions should recognize and encourage that renewed pull toward real-world connection.
