Val Whiting (left) was a 1997 ABL All-Star. Getty Images<\/p>\n Whiting was traded to the Seattle Reign just as the WNBA released a series of commercials, all trumpeting the same proclamation\u2014a harbinger of doom or of something exciting, depending on your allegiances and circumstances. The \u201cWe Got Next\u201d campaign of 1996<\/a> was met with enthusiasm by large swaths of the women\u2019s basketball community, but also felt like a threat to the players of the ABL, who weren\u2019t sure where they\u2019d fit in.<\/p>\n The ABL fought back\u2014at first. \u201cThe WNBA would say, \u2018We got next,\u2019 and the ABL would say, \u2018Well, we got players,\u2019\u201d Whiting laughed. But the WNBA had the backing of the NBA, and as much as that dynamic is being reexamined in 2025 as the league\u2019s players renegotiate their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ahead of next season, in the late 1990s it was too strong a force to overcome. The ABL folded, and, just like that, \u201cWe all went to the WNBA,\u201d Whiting said. At least around 30 players from the ABL did, as the WNBA\u2019s terms put a hard cap on ABL players allowed in.<\/p>\n Whiting\u2019s experience with the WNBA is one she still re-examines to this day. The WNBA\u2019s relationship with the NBA gave the newbie league something the ABL could never grab on to: television contracts with networks, which guaranteed success. As Whiting put it, \u201cWhat sports league can survive without a TV contract?\u201d<\/p>\n Whiting headed east to the Detroit Shock as the No. 17 overall pick in the 1999 draft. The move was a complicated one; Whiting faced mental health struggles and ended up on and off the team\u2019s injury reserve list due to depression. As a result, she doesn\u2019t \u201chave the best memories\u201d of her time in the city. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the tools to combat how I was feeling, in regard to performance anxiety, losing my confidence and bouncing back from mistakes\u201d she explained, \u201cand I ended up spiraling.\u201d<\/p>\n Val Whiting defends Lisa Leslie during a 2001 game. Getty Images<\/p>\n For Whiting, spiraling meant isolation, and it meant completely avoiding opening up to others about what she faced. Officially, she was out due to \u201cpersonal reasons\u201d\u2014that oft bandied catchphrase that never quite explains anything. Unofficially, she was up against a wall with no perceivable way to get around, over, or through it.<\/p>\n Whiting lived that way for years until, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, she, like so many others, joined TikTok and uploaded a video about mental health. That video sparked conversation, and Whiting began to realize she has something to say that can help others and, crucially, the ability to communicate it. \u201cI know that when I played, I had no support,\u201d Whiting explained. Her coach, perhaps lacking the appropriate resources themselves, labeled her \u201cunmotivated.\u201d<\/p>\n Walking that road alone became so dark that Whiting was hospitalized twice nearly 15 years ago. \u201cI didn\u2019t get the help I needed. I just let things go until it was too late, and then I was suicidal,\u201d she added, an audible drop to her voice. Whiting gathered herself. \u201cI just don\u2019t want athletes or people to suffer in silence, and I want them to get the help they need\u2014whether it\u2019s with me or with someone else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Whiting put together a TikTok video on the topic one day, and \u201cthat\u2019s when a lot of other players, other young athletes, reached out about what I was doing. And I mean, they reached out about my experience and resonated with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Whiting currently operates in somewhat of a gray area within the world of mental health, but it\u2019s one that athletes, and perhaps more specifically, young athletes, benefit from the most. Whiting acts as a mental performance coach and helps \u201cathletes get from where they are now to where they want to be in the next level.\u201d (She\u2019s also clear that these challenges aren\u2019t unique to young women: \u201cI\u2019m a mom of two boys,\u201d Whiting said, \u201cso I see boys go through this as well.\u201d)<\/p>\n Her experience is vast, and when she doesn\u2019t feel qualified to guide an athlete down their own mental health journey, Whiting doesn\u2019t hesitate to find someone who can. She works at the collegiate and professional athlete level, but also with kids who are just beginning their own athletic journeys; middle and high school students are among those who most often need someone like Whiting in their corner.<\/p>\n That our youngest athletes are struggling at rates of depression and other mental health challenges that are comparative to their older counterparts isn\u2019t entirely new information. A 2023 study<\/a> by Tavish Ward, Thor Stead, Rohan Mangal and Latha Ganti found that of 200 athletes between ages 16 and 17 the group anonymously surveyed, a massive 91 percent reported experiencing \u201csome level of stress due to sports\u201d and cited fear of failure and self-pressure as their most frequent points of stress.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2025, coaches are still like, \u2018We\u2019re fine,\u2019\u201d Whiting said of the prevailing approach to mental health support in youth athletics. \u201c[It\u2019s] \u2018We\u2019ll just run them harder\u2019 instead of \u2018Let\u2019s give them the tools, so that when things get tough, they know how to combat and how to react to [mental health challenges].\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes down to it, \u201cI didn\u2019t have those skills,\u201d she concluded. There\u2019s no way to know what might have been if she had, and, spurred by a calling that dims even her elite basketball career, Whiting is determined to make things better for as many athletes as she can.<\/p>\n![\"Val](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/gettyimages-138348074.jpg\"\/)
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