Along with D’Angelo Russell and Eric Paschall, second-year man Omari Spellman has become one of the oft-discussed new faces for the Warriors this season. The promising big man became a bit of a storyline after a subpar rookie year with the Atlanta Hawks and him putting his weight issues on display for the public to recognize.
Despite the team entering the Thanksgiving holiday with the league’s worst record, Spellman’s personal progression has become one of the few bright spots in the early goings.
After the Warriors earned their fourth victory of the season by defeating the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night, Spellman took to the podium and fielded a question about his level of happiness. It’s safe to say he provided insight than few thought would have come from a relatively “normal” question.
Forget physically. This is the best I’ve felt, as a person, since college. And that is not a knock on Atlanta, it was just some things that I was going through, some things that I didn’t understand, that made it harder for me that first year in Atlanta.
As a rookie, Spellman averaged 5.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game for the Hawks. He played just 17.5 minutes per game for a team that mostly struggled. This past July, he was traded to the Warriors where he’s, obviously, found a new lease on life and gotten the type of support he’d been missing as a pro.
…Just having people come around me and see that I need help and help me in the way that they have — especially my family, my close circle and the Warriors organization — have made it an easy transition from a very bad place to being happy again and just playing basketball. It was a long time that I kinda dreaded basketball and to get that back is pretty dope.
In recent years, thanks in major part to the likes of Ron Artest, Kevin Love, Adam Silver and even Kyrie Irving, the conversation around mental health and spiritual well-being is one that NBA players are no longer afraid to have. Even more important is the fact that players such as Spellman have felt empowered and emboldened to discuss their mental health.
Spellman just gave an incredibly authentic answer about feeling happier than he's felt since college:
"Having people come around me and see that I need help, and help in the way that they have… has made it a really easy transition from a very bad place to being happy again." pic.twitter.com/8WqHdwArNK
— KNBR (@KNBR) November 28, 2019
No matter how you feel about Spellman or the Warriors’ struggles this season, he’s clearly found happiness, and that’s something that we should all be rooting for.