Photo:Zach Beeker/NBAE via Getty
Zach Beeker/NBAE via Getty
Nina Westbrook is a licensed marriage and family therapist, but she didn’t realize the importance of mental wellness until she began playing basketball at UCLA.
“I was not someone who struggled significantly until college,” says Nina, 34, of her mental health journey.
The coping mechanisms she utilized at UCLA have proven to be valuable skills for navigating life as the wife of an NBA star, she says. She and husband Russell Westbrook, now in his 15th year in the NBA, married in August 2015 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. They share son Noah, 4, and twin daughters Jordyn and Skye, 3.
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The failed experiment making him the Lakers' third star next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis accelerated the negativity around Russell as a player and even forced Nina to reconsider bringing their children to his games during the 2021-22 season.
During apress conferenceat the time, Russell opened up about the impact the harsh criticism has had on his well-being. “I’ve been blessed and super thankful for the ones around me and the ones that support me, but the shaming of my name, the shaming of my character, is not warranted,” he said.
“This is a game. This is not my entire life. It starts to affect my family, my wife, my mom. I don’t even want to bring my kids to the game because I don’t want them to hear people calling their dad names.”
Nina also addressed the fans' behavior that season. “When I’m being harassed on a daily basis over basketball games, and I’m having obscenity’s and death wishes for me and my family sent my way because you’re expressing your ‘truth’, it’s hard for me to get on board with that,” shewroteon Twitter at the time.
The “biggest challenge” for the Westbrooks is the lack of control of how things “play out and get back to our children,” Nina tells PEOPLE.
Nina Earl Instagram
“I go for the things I want, and I do that confidently knowing that I have the support of my family behind me. Watching my kids and my husband do the things that they love with such enthusiasm inspires me.”
source: people.com
