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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
HoopsHype

Robert Covington: ‘At one point I was ready to walk away from this game’

Three years after seeking professional help for “all the things I had going on in my head mentally,” he is as much a giver as a taker, a change seen not only in the energy he gives to teammates, although that has become a staple of his brief Clippers tenure. “I like to keep people and those spirits high because I’ve been at a point where I’ve been frustrated and overwhelmed, and that s— takes a toll,” he said. “And at one point I was ready to walk away from this game.”
Source: Andrew Greif @ Los Angeles Times

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Law Murray @LawMurrayTheNU
Knicks lead 80-68 going into fourth quarter.
This is the part of the game where we mention that the Knicks blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead Friday night in Phoenix.
Rough third quarter for LAC vets Jackson, Morris, Batum. Decent bench minutes from Coffey, Covington, Kennard. – 12:01 AM
Andrew Greif @AndrewGreif
The Clippers have turned their 26-point deficit into a 12-point hole with the fourth quarter incoming. Robert Covington was central to the rally. LAC took 9 free throws in the third quarter, making all of them. – 12:01 AM
Law Murray @LawMurrayTheNU
RJ Barrett missed the break layup, Robert Covington hit the PUJIT 3, and it becomes a 4-point play because Barrett got a tech. Kennard made the FT after getting back to defend Barrett – 11:49 PM
Andrew Greif @AndrewGreif
Robert Covington hits a three, which becomes a four-point play after a technical on RJ Barrett. The lead is 20 for New York and that feels … weirdly manageable for the Clippers? – 11:48 PM
Law Murray @LawMurrayTheNU
This seems like the first big test for a small ball Clippers unit that has been kept mostly under wraps since the arrival of Robert Covington.
Knicks lead swelled to as many as 19, down to 41-27 after Morris finally gets a bucket. 5:39 left in first half – 10:58 PM
Law Murray @LawMurrayTheNU
Marcus Morris Sr. has missed his first 12 shots against the Knicks this season. Was 0/9 six weeks ago in New York, 0/3 start today. Robert Covington in the game now at PF – 10:28 PM
Alex Caruso @ACFresh21
Covington or Masvidal 👀 – 12:30 AM

More on this storyline

But in 2019, hurt in more ways than one after a trade from Philadelphia to Minnesota in 2018, Covington believed he was giving away too much — from energy to his family and his friends and attention to the negativity he says is the curse that comes with the money and the fame of professional basketball. “If you’re not in the right mental space, man … it can eat at you,” Covington said. “It can eat you.” It was eating away in early 2019 in Minneapolis when Covington responded by doing what had forged his career. But this time, it was himself that he took away. The player whose gifts allowed him to cover up a defense’s shortcomings had no idea how to address his own. He considered whether it was time to leave the NBA life he’d worked so hard to reach. -via Los Angeles Times / March 7, 2022
“I snapped on people that were just trying to help me and I went into solitude by myself, kicked everybody out away from me, and was sitting in the loneliness,” he said. “Darkness, by myself. Me and my Cane Corso. He knew something was wrong, because he never left my side. “When I had to have surgery, to repair my meniscus at that time, it just was going on and I was like, ‘What do I take? And how do I get out of this place?’ ” -via Los Angeles Times / March 7, 2022
Paul George has spoken numerous times about suffering depression in the NBA bubble, but he provided an even more depth interview with Serge Ibaka. George joined Ibaka on his cooking show ‘How Hungry Are You?’ where they discussed various topics, including his lack of sleep NBA bubble. “A lot of it was just weighing on me,” George said. “For one, I wasn’t sleeping. I don’t know what it was… It was probably, no lie, I probably went a good week and a half to two weeks of zero sleep, zero sleep. No lie. I would lay in bed and my mind would just be racing, racing, racing. I tried everything bro, I tried using apps, I tried therapy, sleeping gummies… they don’t know this.” -via Sports Illustrated / February 24, 2022

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