I’d be right with you if Fultz’s condition was similar to, say, what Zack Greinke faced early in his professional career. Diseases of the brain shouldn’t be stigmatized, and we should celebrate the progress we’ve made in treating them.
But this isn’t that. We don’t know what’s ailing Fultz. I haven’t seen anything suggesting he has a diagnosable mental illness. He had a minor shoulder injury that should’ve healed months ago. Somd gross person in the Colangelo family suggested he might have had some family drama; ymmv if you credit that account or think it’s probative — I tend to think it has fuck-all to do with Fultz’s shot escaping him.
Saying he has the “yips” is imprecise, but there doesn’t seem to be a better way to describe it. And anecdotally, it seems that a fair number of people with the yips never get over it.
I agree that it’s lame to describe it as mental weakness, or to say with no evidence whatsoever that it’s harder to overcome the yips in Boston than in, say, Memphis. But if he doesn’t figure it out, he should be able to take his millions, finish his education, and lead a normal life. It’s not at all comparable to a bona fide mental illness.