https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/nba/nba-duncan-robinson-eli-robinson-detroit-pistons-rcna234969

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> But in recent years when Eli would call his family — sometimes dialing Duncan more than a dozen times before and after games during his first seven seasons in the NBA — they didn’t know what to expect to hear on the other end.

> Eli heard voices. The auditory hallucinations, diagnosed in 2021 as schizophrenia, turned the big-hearted, caring side of his personality his family loved into a hypervigilant, protective paranoia that his parents, Elisabeth and Jeffrey, tried to de-escalate. As a last resort, they would call in Marta, a licensed therapist, and Duncan, who was Eli's "whisperer."

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> The voices were "all about us being in danger," Marta said.

> Duncan said: "The real challenge of that was the volatility. He would call me, he would make sure I was safe. He made sure I was OK. ... And then he could hang up. And sure enough, maybe, you know, 15 to 20 minutes later, he called me again.

> “So of course, in that stretch, I think, probably the greatest challenge was finding ways to compartmentalize and still try to perform. I always kept in perspective, like he’s the one going through it. And obviously it impacts us as a family. We were all sort of constantly anxious and on edge, but that was never the priority, making sure we were OK. It was always making sure he was OK.”

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> "It was this weird juxtaposition that I was sort of living my dream, really our dream, because it’s what my brother wanted, too," he said. "And then going 35 miles up the road and seeing this totally different experience of what my own flesh and blood, you know, my big brother was going through.

> "Those are really some of the most challenging aspects in years for me, because he was so close. But in reality, it felt like he was so far. I would try to always have these points of contact, but it was really hard."

(@nbcnews) Duncan Robinson opened up about the death of his older brother Eli — and what he hopes will change in health care when it comes to mental health. Article by Andrew Greif.