ESPY 2020 Awards: NBA Champion Kevin Love Accepts the Arthur Ashe Courage Award

Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love earned the honor for his transparency and promotion around emotional wellness, saying, “I accept this award as both an honor and a challenge”

Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love has been one of the most vocal backers for emotional well-being in the NBA, and he was perceived for his endeavors at the 2020 ESPY Awards on Sunday.

Love, 31, was given the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYs for his work to destigmatize emotional wellness issues, as indicated by ESPN.

Presenting a video about Love during the remote function, Matthew McConaughey said the competitor earned the honor for “his guidance, his wisdom, his grace, and his courage.”

Love, McConaughey stated, is “someone looks themselves in the mirror, accepts that everything is not perfect, and finds the strength to say that out to the world,” said McConaughey.

Tolerating the honor, Love stated, “Humbled does not even begin to describe the feeling. … I accept this award as both an honor and a challenge. A challenge to not only continue on my path, but to push beyond it, and to stay vocal, even when silence feels safer.”

The previous NBA champion got national consideration when he wrote a passionate 2018 exposition in the Players Tribune that uncovered he had a fit of anxiety during a game in 2017.

“When I got to the bench, I felt my heart racing faster than usual. Then I was having trouble catching my breath,” he composed at that point. “It’s hard to describe, but everything was spinning, like my brain was trying to climb out of my head. The air felt thick and heavy. My mouth was like chalk.”

“I remember our assistant coach yelling something about a defensive set,” Love continued. “I nodded, but I didn’t hear much of what he said. By that point, I was freaking out. When I got up to walk out of the huddle, I knew I couldn’t reenter the game — like, literally couldn’t do it physically.”

The scene roused Love to take care of his psychological prosperity and to move others to do likewise.

In front of officially getting the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, Love said he trusts the exercises he’s found out can arrive at others.

“It is an absolute honor to receive this award and I am incredibly humbled by it,” Love said in an announcement to ESPN. “In telling my story, if I can help just one child that is suffering to make sense of what they are experiencing, I know my efforts have been worth it.

“And I hope one day we are able to erase the stigma around mental illness, starting with public conversations around mental health and encouraging people to seek help when they need it, followed by research, action, and change,” he said.

Other past victors of the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage incorporate Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Nelson Mandela, and Robin Roberts.

The ESPYs are occurring remotely this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and are being facilitated via Seattle Seahawks star Russell Wilson, USWNT chief Megan Rapinoe and WNBA player Sue Bird.