CHICAGO (670 The Score) – Bulls reserve center Andre Drummond thanked his teammates and the organization for their support as he recently missed a game to focus on his mental health and also characterized his well-being as “OK” as he continues to juggle personal matters with his job.
“Everybody was there for me,” Drummond said after the Bulls’ 128-107 win against the Grizzlies on Sunday, when he addressed the media for the first time since missing his team's loss to the Lakers on Wednesday. “Nobody really knew what was going on. I was dealing with a lot mentally, and I had to take some time away to clear my mind and address some things that I’ve been neglecting for a while. I feel OK. I obviously still have a lot of work to do with my mental (health), but I have a job to do. And that’s to win basketball games and get to the playoffs. So that’s why I’m back. I’m ready to play. This stuff personally, I can take care of when the time comes, but I still have a job to do.”
Drummond had two points and six rebounds in the win Sunday after posting six points and 11 rebounds in the victory Friday, his first game back.
“Being around people who care about me has been really beneficial for me and obviously being around my teammates, who have been a great help for me too, it’s great to be back, it’s great to play the game of basketball,” he said. “I’m grateful to be here.”
Last Tuesday afternoon, Drummond tweeted that he was “deleting all my social apps” and changing his phone number because it was time “to focus on my mental health.” He then stressed that it’s “okay to ask for help.”
Drummond was enthused by and appreciative of the reaction he has received since announcing his mental health struggles. Those close to him also informed him the reaction on social media was overwhelmingly positive, though Drummond didn’t see that himself as he logged off Twitter.
“Once I tweeted that out and posted it, I already erased (my Twitter account),” Drummond said. “So I didn’t even know what was going on until people started telling me. So I wasn’t doing it to get that kind of reaction. It was more so just the closing of a chapter for my mental (health) just to really escape that and really tackle some things that I needed to take care of.
“We’re looked at as superheroes, like nothing really bothers us and that we don’t have a life outside the game. That’s what people fail to understand, that we do have personal lives outside the game of basketball, and it becomes taxing at times. That superhero cape that we have on has to come off at some point in time. It’s OK to ask for help. It’s OK to feel. It’s OK to be emotional. We’re all men, but we have to be OK with having feelings.”
Drummond continued to expand on the topic.
“As a man, we’re known to be the masculine one,” he said. “Nothing bothers us. We have to be the protector, the provider and the one that does everything. So I think over the past couple of years, guys have been coming out and expressing that it’s OK to shed light on mental traumas and things that we go through. And it’s OK to share with other people, because other people have the type of journey that we’re going down too. It’s OK to bring them along too, to let everybody know that they’re not alone.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
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