Basketball Psychiatry™ | Phil Smith, MD
About Basketball Psychiatry™
Basketball Psychiatry™ is an independent publication exploring sport performance, decision-making, and psychological development in basketball.
Founded in 2026 by Phil Smith, MD, Basketball Psychiatry™ examines the relationship between athletes, coaches, and the environments that shape performance. Drawing from sports psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and performance science, the publication focuses on how players develop, adapt, and sustain themselves under pressure.
What distinguishes Basketball Psychiatry™ is its clinical and relational lens. Rather than focusing only on outcomes or metrics, the work examines the internal conditions that make performance possible—attention, regulation, identity, and the capacity to play—while remaining grounded in a medical understanding of how mental and physiological systems interact under pressure.
Basketball Psychiatry™ is built on a simple premise: performance is not only physical or technical—it is psychological (mental), relational, developmental, and, at times, clinical. By integrating insights from psychiatry, performance science, and athlete care, the publication brings greater clarity to the full spectrum of factors that shape performance, from everyday regulation to complex mental health and recovery processes.
The scope of the publication includes player development, coaching dynamics, injury and return-to-play, decision-making under load, and the evolving psychological landscape of modern sport, including Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and athlete identity. Where relevant, it also considers the medical and psychiatric dimensions of performance, including diagnosis, recovery, and the role of treatment in sustaining long-term basketball athlete health and function.
Basketball Psychiatry™ is written and maintained by Phil Smith, MD.
About Phil Smith, MD
Phil Smith, MD is a practicing, board-certified psychiatrist specializing in sports and performance psychiatry, and the founder and editor of Basketball Psychiatry™.
He founded Basketball Psychiatry™ to explore the psychological and relational structures that shape athletic performance, with a particular focus on basketball as a developmental system.
His work integrates clinical psychiatry, psychoanalytic theory, and performance science to better understand how athletes think, adapt, and perform under conditions of pressure and uncertainty.
In addition to his writing, Dr. Smith is developing applied frameworks and tools designed to translate psychological insight into real-world performance environments.
Phil earned his medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, completed his psychiatry residency at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, and practices sports and performance psychiatry in Charlotte, North Carolina.