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Royce White's Implosion

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How will Royce do this season?

  • Gets in gear and lives up to his potential

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Looks great on on a team of scrubs, but doesn't give houston any regrets.

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • Gets on the floor a couple times. Doesn't make a compelling case for more minutes.

    Votes: 10 58.8%
  • Doesn't play a game. Reaffirms all the negative sterotypes that mental illess has.

    Votes: 6 35.3%

  • Total voters
    17

Triumph36

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Not that people didn't see this coming, but it seems things are getting rough down in Houston. Too lazy to summarize everything but basically: White got pissed about the way in which the Rox were handling him (playing time, doctor visits, etc) and after meeting with Morey last week, things seem to have came to a head over the past few days. Rox were gonna send him down to the D-League but he bailed on practices and Dr. visits, so is now being fined for everything he misses. He's spent much of the day going off on twitter ( https://twitter.com/Highway_30/with_replies ).

Honestly, I think he has a serious case of entitlement and a me-first attitude. Yes, he has anxiety issues. But you don't earn playing time because of that; you earn it because of what you do on the court. A lot of the Rockets rookies have hardly played so it's not like he's even being singled out anyway. The Rockets have been more than accommodating...he doesn't even have to travel with the team most of the time ffs.

The Doctor stuff is a little more complicated. But I don't see why he wouldn't try things with the Dr. the team arranged - he/she is likely much more qualified than the person White has been seeing.

Anyway, it looks like the situation is going to get even more interesting.
 
The kid makes Delonte West seem an even keeled guy who can cope with whatever life throws at him.

I gotta think the Rockets would have been happier picking Tyler Zeller at #16 in hindsight.
 
Feel bad for the guy. Both sides have valid points.

I definitely appreciate how well spoken he is. At least he is expressing his concerns in a clear manner. He's outspoken but not aggressive.
 
Feel bad for the guy. Both sides have valid points.

I definitely appreciate how well spoken he is. At least he is expressing his concerns in a clear manner. He's outspoken but not aggressive.
no matter how well-spoken he is, the social media method probably isn't the best approach, lol.

i'm just not sure what else the rockets can do in an attempt to satisfy him.
 
Feel bad for the guy. Both sides have valid points.

I don't feel bad for the Rockets. They guaranteed $3mil to a guy who seems incapable of doing what they hired him to do. From what I read, the main reason they took Royce at the time was they thought another team wanted him. Maybe Royce could have worked on a team of vets, but he was clearly a bad choice on a team that was thinking about building through the draft. In this case, mental illness is a locker room cancer. Whatever. The Rockets got Hardin. How can you feel bad for them?

I don't feel bad for Royce either. He's a millionaire at 21 and a professional basketball player. Or at least he would be if he just gets his ass to practice. I don't feel sorry for a guy that holds out to get softer contract than all his peers and then can't live up to the watered down terms. If his illness was that bad, maybe he should have taken some time off before playing pro-ball on the big stage. He'll likely get a chance to strengthen his coping skills out of the lime light and in the Turkish pro league if he keeps this up.
 
to be fair, the Rockets had 3 picks in 12-18 range so they could kinda afford to roll the dice. if he were their only pick then yeah it's obv a bad pick.

had they drafted zeller, he probably wouldn't even be playing either. look at donatas. he played real well in summer league (lol, i know) and held his own in pre-season.....now he's down in the d-league.

but yeah i agree white is really shooting himself in the foot here. tough to imagine things getting totally back on track in houston, and of course other teams are taking note of how he is handling this situation.
 
to be fair, the Rockets had 3 picks in 12-18 range so they could kinda afford to roll the dice. if he were their only pick then yeah it's obv a bad pick.

I think we agree that they were taking chances, but I think they were taking chances on players they thought other teams wanted so they could make deals, not on talent that they wanted to develop.

In hindsight, Zeller would have been a great fit next to Asik. At the time, they didn't have Asik or Aldrich so that's all hindsight. I don't think they were drafting for team fit anyway. They were drafting for trade value and they thought Zeller would fall to 18 for them.

I'm just still happy they waive Leuer. I'd be even happier if Leuer hit some shots for the Cavs.
 
Alright, I'll offer my opinion on this as I myself suffer from an extreme case of social anxiety. This guy, while I'm sure suffers from an anxiety disorder of some sort, is clearly exaggerating and taking advantage of the situation. I am deathly afraid of heights, roller coasters, airplanes etc. just the same.. so our situations are very similar. The difference here.. no one in my life knows of my disorder outside my family.. not even the girl I had been in a relationship with for over 2 years. Royce, on the other hand, is just very immature and thinks everything should be handed to him because he has a "mental disorder" which he makes sure to note in all of his twitter posts.

I kind of thought it was odd in one of the documentaries he did.. that he was perfectly fine talking to the camera .. but when asked to go to the draft room he had prepared.. he all of a sudden couldn't handle it. How can you talk to a camera.. but not go into a room with family? If I was put into a room and asked questions while being filmed.. that would be a lot harder on me than going into a room of family and friends.. but, everyone is different.

Those with those disorder, generally, stay away from attracting attention.. you won't catch me on a basketball court with 20,000 staring at me, in a heavily crowded area, or attracting attention on twitter because I know my limitations and I just can't do it.. and I know that.

I'll tell you what Royce suffers from, selfish, immature athlete syndrome. He wants to bus everywhere, thinks playing time should be handed, wants his own doctor, and left the team after they sent him to the dleague.

This guy is not bringing awareness to this disorder, he's making a mockery of it.

Stay away from Twitter, Royce.
 
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--royce-white-s-battle-with-rockets-over-aniexty-disorder-could-cost-him-nba-career-16011709.html;_ylt=AjwJWXl5aHq47HF.F5lncBm8vLYF;_ylu=X3oDMTRranBrOHQ3BG1pdANMSVNUUyBNaXhlZCBMaXN0IE5CQSBFeHBlcnRzBHBrZwMzYzA3ZTllZC0xMDJmLTNhODctYTQwMS02ZWQ3NjI3MjFkOWEEcG9zAzQEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZExQQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgMyZGE5NjA0My0zMDJlLTExZTItYmZlYi1lYjhlYmZlNjEwODQ-;_ylg=X3oDMTFoNjVvZWVyBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANuYmEEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3


Adrian Wojnarowski
Fri, Nov 16, 2012 3:01 PM EST


Royce White's battle with Rockets over anxiety disorder could cost him NBA career

As a lost, confused young man plays the martyr on Twitter timelines, Royce White's chance to construct a sustainable professional basketball career slips away. He's chasing cheers on the court for the Houston Rockets, but they haven't found him deserving of playing time. So, White started to lash out, search for his stardom in cyberspace, and it's turned a combustible partnership into an embarrassing public spectacle.

White has left the Rockets, and there's no telling when he'll return. Before long, White will lose the platform that he so desperately wants to advocate for mental illness. He's fighting a noble fight, with the most noble of intentions, and perhaps someday he can be remembered as a trailblazer on the issue of anxiety disorders.

Yet now, this can't be his crusade, his burden. It's too much. People have tried to tell him this. Royce White needs to save himself and save his basketball career. Without the NBA, his desire to bring awareness – to be a champion for change – will come to an unapologetic and abrupt end.


As White turns this organization into his betrayers, turns himself into a martyr of injustice, he should be preparing himself for the end of his NBA career. This is professional sports, and the cold truth is this: So far, he isn't worth the trouble. So far, he was a waste of a draft pick at No. 16, a waste of the time and care invested in him. Maybe that's hard for him to hear, but it's true – and only he can change it.

This isn't a dismissal of mental illness. This isn't a belittling of his struggle. This is simply a fact. As he rails against the Rockets' insistence that he meet with one of their doctors when he's failing to honor his contract to show up for practices and games, he's losing sight that this is the one organization that's invested in his mental health and development as a player.

If Houston gives up on him, White will struggle to find another team willing to make even close to the commitment – if any at all. White has turned down NBA D-League assignments, missed practices and conditioning workouts and tried to convince Rockets officials that his anxiety order would be much, much better if they would simply play him in games. This isn't a negotiation, and never will be.

Houston redid White's contract so it could pay for White's RVs and car services on trips, because of his fear of flying. The Rockets have let him come and go this season without fining him. They owe him that patience and understanding, but they don't owe him playing time. It's earned in the NBA, the way three Houston rookies are trying to earn it.


If it was easier for White to manage his anxiety disorder when he was the star at Iowa State, well, that isn't the Rockets' problem. There's no leveraging an anxiety disorder to get out of a D-League demotion and onto the NBA floor.

When meetings with Rockets coaches and officials couldn't get White the minutes he wanted, when a demotion to Rio Grande and the bus trips of the minors had been broached, White stopped showing up to the team's facility for practices and games last week. Maybe it was a coincidence, but White is losing the benefit of the doubt.

Metta World Peace and Delonte West had public bouts with mental illness and eventually confronted them in constructive, public ways. They tried to make a difference for people, but they also had proven themselves as NBA players. World Peace has lasted in the league because he understood this is a results business, and he's had to be even better than the next guy to survive so long with the issues that never went away. Right now, White hasn't played a minute in the NBA, and it's fair to wonder if he ever will.


The Rockets believed it was a significant gamble to take White with the 16th pick, but considered him one of the top five talents in the class and were willing to be patient, to give him every possible support system and do the most dangerous thing a team can do in a locker room: allow there to be a separate set of rules for an athlete.

White wanted separate transportation to get to training camp, and it was offered him. He didn't take it. The Rockets redid his contract and agreed to pay for the RV travel to bring him to selected games. They sent a vehicle to pick him up for the drive to training camp, and he didn't get into it. The list goes on and on, and it's November of his rookie season.

Most teams in the NBA would never give White this kind of special treatment. "He isn't good enough – and I'm not sure anyone would be good enough – to have a completely different set of guidelines for him," one GM told me. "I would've already cut him."


There are a lot of NBA owners and GMs who agree, and yet the Rockets think differently on White. In that way, he's fortunate. It is hard to have an NBA career, and it's even harder for him given the obstacles he must overcome. Everyone is rooting for this guy, especially the franchise that's getting ridiculed for drafting him, the general manager, Daryl Morey, who clearly has an angry owner over the entire spectacle.

I don't know what it's like to live with White's anxiety disorder, and I don't pretend to know how he should feel about what's happened lately between him and the Rockets. Nevertheless, there are people close to him begging him to start cooperating with the Rockets again, because this is the best chance – the best commitment – a franchise will ever have in him as an NBA player.

In the past 24 hours, White slowed down the Twitter rampage and started to fulfill some of his obligations to the Rockets, sources told Yahoo! Sports. That's something, anyway. This public platform matters to White, and he needs to understand that despite his protests, he is indeed a commodity. When the risk outweighs the reward on him, he's gone – and probably gone forever in the league.


The NBA will never be played on his terms. Royce White isn't good enough, and the sooner he realizes it, the sooner he understands only he can save himself right now, the sooner he can maybe salvage a career that's already slipping away.
 
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Remember how much we all used to hate Wojo?
 
Remember how much we all used to hate Wojo?

He is probably the best NBA journalist out there currently. He certainly knocks the socks off any ESPN coverage of anything NBA-related.
 

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