Kevin Love

SOURCE OF WEALTH: NBA Player

FUNDING AREAS: Mental Health, TBD

OVERVIEW: Kevin Love recently launched the Kevin Love Fund, which strives to inspire people to live their healthiest lives while providing the tools to achieve physical and emotional well being.

BACKGROUND: Born in Santa Monica in 1988, Kevin Love grew up outside of Portland where he was high school basketball star. He attended UCLA and was drafted fifth during the 2008 NBA Draft. He played for the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first part of his career before playing alongside Lebron James and Kyrie Irving for the Cleveland Cavaliers, helping bring the city its first championship.

ISSUES:

MENTAL HEALTH: In 2018, Love launched the Kevin Love Fund, through the EIF, which strives to inspire people to live their healthiest lives while providing the tools to achieve physical and emotional well being. The NBA star has been open about his own battle with anxiety and depression. Early work includes working with Bring Change to Mind, created to end the stigma and discrimination around mental health by empowering young people in high school and college; the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, founded by Matthew and Camila McConaughey to empower high school students to lead more active lives and make healthy choices; and the UCLA Athletics Department. Love recently made a $500,000 gift to UCLA.

The Kevin Love Fund has also aligned with the meditation and mindfulness app Headspace, working to provide student athletes at UCLA with year-long subscriptions to the app to incorporate into their training regimens.

LOOKING AHEAD: Barely into his 30s, Love is still very much involved in the NBA. But he’s been among the NBA’s most outspoken about mental health issues, and may ramp up his work in this area down the line.

LINK: Facebook Page