As the confetti fell down on the UCLA women’s basketball team, the Bruins’ star center, Lauren Betts, was bouncing around the court with a million-watt smile, hugging everyone in sight. UCLA had just won its first-ever NCAA women’s basketball championship, and it would be easy to think that Betts, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, had never had a care in the world. The girl just radiated joy!
However, those who have heard Betts’ story know that behind the joy and light, there were previously long periods of darkness.
Betts recently told her story in a personal essay in The Players’ Tribune, where she chronicled her mental health challenges. Things got so bad for Betts that she checked herself into the UCLA hospital after she started having suicidal thoughts. In the article, Betts wrote about how much it meant to her when she returned to her team and was embraced by her teammates and the coaching staff. She wrote, “Seeing that my coaches still had love for me, even though I hadn’t been playing basketball, that was really, really important to me. It was like an epiphany. These people love me for me, not because of what I produce on the court.”
And so, on the night of the triumphant championship, UCLA head coach Cori Close made a point to remind the world that Betts’ journey to the top of the college women’s basketball mountaintop has not been her most important accomplishment. On the victory podium, Close got choked up with emotion when she told the world what she said to Betts on the morning of the game, “I pulled her aside this morning and I said, ‘No matter what happens today, I will always be more proud of who she’s become and who she’s impacted than any nets we’ll cut down.’”
The impact Close referred to is the effect that Betts’ openness about her struggles will have on other people facing anxiety and depression. It would have been understandable to tell UCLA staff and players that she preferred to keep her mental health challenges private. In the championship post-game press conference, Betts addressed her decision to make her struggles public. She said, “I think the journey that I’ve had and the hardships that I went through are to help other people.”
Betts’ perspective on helping others reflects the philosophy that Close shared in an interview with Scott Van Pelt on ESPN SportsCenter. She stated, “Banners hang in gyms and rings collect dust, but who you become and who you impact, you get to keep forever.”
Lauren Betts is a basketball champion, but her courage to channel her own pain into helping others makes her something far more important — a life champion — and like Close said, she will be that forever.
