Naomi Osaka making the decision not to talk to the press after games, during the Roland Garros tournament, citing her mental health as one of the reasons, started a conversation that I hoped would get us closer to what we have pretended to do in recent years: acknowledge the humanity of athletes regardless of their fame, success, and get real about the role we play in making those spaces unsafe for them. It didn’t. Instead, it showed me how far we still have to go and how far off target we are when directing our displeasure.
