Retirement for professional athletes seems to be a hard pill to swallow. Many aren’t able to cope with leaving the most important part of their lives behind and depression becomes a common side effect. Former Lakers guard, Nick Young, recently confessed that he too struggled similarly when he retired. He revealed that his depression lasted over four years after his retirement, and only recently has he found peace in his life.
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During a sit down with ‘DJ Vlad’, the 2018 champion likened his situation to his friend and Wizards legend Gilbert Arenas. He added that he too felt purposeless once he departed from the NBA in 2019,
“Yeah, it’s cold, and it’s like you trying to find yourself. You do get depressed, you miss basketball. When you even play basketball, it’s just not the same; you know you can’t do the same moves you used to do.”
Besides that, when it came time to play in pick-up games and amateur leagues, Young couldn’t respond to trash-talkers due to his body’s athletic decline. He said,
“I remember I was at the gym the other day, and somebody was like, ‘Oh, you here now, you at LA Fitness with us now’. Like people ‘Oh Nick, you ain’t got it no more, you can’t do that, you can’t dunk no more, you at LA Fitness with us playing.‘”
Young reassured fellow athletes, who are struggling in similar ways, that there is light at the end of the tunnel. He revealed that finding something to replace basketball with, immensely helped his mental health. A piece of advice from someone who has gone through this will surely be beneficial for many like LaMarcus Aldrige.
LaMarcus Aldrige’s arrhythmic heart causes him heartbreak
In 2021, LaMarcus Aldrige and the Brooklyn Nets looked like the favorites to win it all. But things would soon come crashing down after Aldrige abruptly declared his retirement from the NBA, just weeks after signing with the Nets. When announcing his retirement, Aldridge said he was leaving as a result of an irregular heartbeat.
After retiring, the former Nets player revealed that his entire NBA career he was playing with a condition called “Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome”, in an interview with The Athletic. It is said to cause a rapid heartbeat due to an extra electrical pathway in the heart.
Later in the interview, the former Spurs star also revealed that he had been struggling with mental health issues since his retirement,
“I still love basketball. I still feel like I have a lot to give. But even now, I’m still trying to find myself. When you go from doing something you love for so long and you lose it overnight, it’s a shock.”
In the end, Aldrige didn’t miss out on much, as the Brooklyn Nets fell apart in epic fashion, not even making a single Conference Finals appearance during that three-year stretch.
