WNBA star Lauren Betts delivered a moving acceptance speech during the ESPYs on Wednesday night.
Betts, who is in her rookie season with the Washington Mystics, won the award for Best College Athlete in Women’s Sports during the awards ceremony in the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York.
The 22-year-old won the national championship with UCLA in April before being drafted by the Mystics with the fourth overall pick in the WNBA Draft later that month.
Betts used her moment onstage on Wednesday night to advocate for mental health – something she herself suffered with during her college career.
‘I feel like I have the opportunity with this platform that I have to speak on something that is really important to me,’ she said during her emotional acceptance speech.
‘So, for a lot of people who know me, they know everything about my mental health journey – everything that I speak up about and what I’m really open about. I just want people to know for people that know about my journey is that protecting my peace is the one thing that I’ve been as fierce about with chasing my dreams.
WNBA star Lauren Betts delivered a moving acceptance speech during the ESPYs
The 22-year-old was drafted by the Washington Mystics in the WNBA Draft in April
‘Your mental health is not separate from your success. It’s the foundation of everything that you do. The strongest people aren’t the ones who never struggle. They’re the ones who have the courage to let someone walk through their struggle with them. I appreciate you guys so much thank you.’
Her speech left viewers at home moved as many took to social media to praise Betts for speaking up on the topic.
‘Awwww love how she repeatedly speaks up about this topic she’s helping out so many people and athletes,’ one wrote on X.
‘Great speech,’ praised another. ‘Don’t need to have partisan politics to make an impact. Mental health conversations aren’t political. It’s important to listen and understand those, including myself, who battle mental health issues and how we can help each other.’
‘True strength isn’t just winning trophies it’s having the courage to speak openly about mental health,’ added a third.
A fourth shared: ‘Powerful moment Lauren Betts using her ESPYs win to shine light on mental health struggles is truly inspiring.’
The 6-foot-7 center, who entered college as the nation’s No. 1 recruit, has been open about her own struggles with mental health, detailing her battle with clinical depression that forced her to briefly step away from basketball.
In an emotional essay with The Players’ Tribune earlier this year, she detailed a terrifying downward spiral that began at the end of her freshman year, despite the immense hype surrounding her athletic potential.
Betts used her moment onstage on Wednesday night to advocate for mental health
The Washington roookie won the national championship with UCLA in April
Betts, pictured ahead of April’s draft, has been open about her struggles with mental health
The star athlete described a state of emotional ‘numbness’ that eventually gave way to a wave of overwhelming anxiety that made her want to give up on life entirely.
‘The whole time I thought I was treading water, I was actually slipping away,’ the All-American wrote, comparing her mental state to ‘fading’ into the darkest part of the ocean.
She revealed that the crisis reached a breaking point one morning when the headspace she was in became ‘too dangerous to ignore,’ leading her to check into a UCLA hospital.
Bruins fans would recall Betts missing four games in January 2024 for ‘personal reasons,’ but the nature of that absence was far more traumatic than first realized.
Due to a lack of available beds in the psychiatric ward, the college superstar was forced to spend the night in a hallway surrounded by ‘people screaming and shouting.’
‘I didn’t get any sleep,’ she recalled of the harrowing experience. ‘I just laid on that gurney wondering how my teammates were doing… I was just so ashamed.’
Despite the ordeal, Betts used her platform to urge others in a ‘bad headspace’ to seek help, calling it the ‘best option’ for those who feel they are drowning.
‘I want to be HERE, experiencing life, in all its beauty and all its messiness, for a really really long time,’ she wrote in the powerful essay.
