Royce White headed to D-league??

"... It is a health issue. I must advocate for my rights. It is a player-commodity league. The failure to meet my requests for support will end with me being unhealthy and that is not a consequence that I am willing to accept to play any sport."



This sounds like it might have been influenced and crafted by someone associated with his anxiety charity. Royce is a smart, articulate guy, but I don't remember him ever saying something before like "player-commodity league." I'm sure he could find terms like this on his own, but I also don't have trouble imagining others feeding it to him.
 
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I don't think we can easily discount the difference between playing college ball and playing at the pro level.

First of all, these are absolutely the best players in the world. Basically, everybody is really good.

Second, there is the schedule. Pre-season starts in October.....not November. If your team makes the playoffs...your season may not end until late June....not March or early April. You have up to 8 pre-season games, 82 regular season games, and up to 28 post-season games. That's a possible 118 games in a full season.....not less than 40 total as in college. You will usually have only one or two days between games. Not one or two games per week. More like 3 or 4.

Then you have all the travel....from coast to coast, and sometimes there are games on back to back days. In between, you have team meetings, shoot-arounds and actual practices.

On top of all that.......you are generally being very well paid. The fan bases are generally larger, and possibly even more fanatical. There is more publicity regarding the team, the coaches, and the players.

I'm just saying I don't think we can take how Royce was at ISU and really expect it to apply to his life in the pros. Two totally different worlds. The Big 12/NCAA is not the NBA, and Ames is not Houston. I think it is becoming pretty clear that Royce was not prepared for this, and unfortunately, he does not seem to have the right people around him to help him adjust.

This would apply if it was the middle of the season and he'd been there the whole time. He's barely been there a month and it sounds like very little of that time has he actually been with the team.
 
This would apply if it was the middle of the season and he'd been there the whole time. He's barely been there a month and it sounds like very little of that time has he actually been with the team.

Still applies. The man suffers from anxiety. He played in the summer league, moved to Houston, has been to some practices, has signed a contract, and can see the schedule ahead of him. He has gotten just a glimpse of what the NBA is all about, and it appears to be too much for him to handle at this time.

It definitely applies.
 
I think Royce is casting a very negative light on anxiety disorder which is the exact opposite of what he seemingly set out to do. Too bad for all of us, we are all missing out, Royce included. It is starting to seem that employers should be weary of anxiety disorder.

"Hey bossman, can't work today, just dont feel up to it, and my doctor agrees with me, did you send me my paycheck or was it deposited straight into my account? Ok cool, ya, make sure my next check goes straight into my account. Nah, not sure I will make practice tomorrow either. I might not feel up for it. You understand right?"

Sorry Royce, even a person with your talent isn't going to find a boss who will agree to this type of arrangement. If it wasn't work, we'd call it fun.
 
His lastest twitter response is brutal

All the misdirection from @HoustonRockets about the "medical help" is laughable. I told them I would like to see MY doctor for 3yrs.

This really, really isn't professional on any level. Was it Chad Johnson or TO who the NFL shut down on Twitter (I forget)? Maybe the NBA should put that in the contracts, too. I love Royce, but this is like a teenager sulking.
 
Royce White ‏@Highway_30
The "just get on the plane" comment is baffling... LOW #publicawareness explains why we're having this issue, education is key. Its scary!




oh no he, didn't!!!
 
The latest:

Ultimate Rockets » Lack of playing time one of issues in Royce White conflict with Rockets

This is not good. I don't think it is going to end well at all, for either party.

If he is getting fined every time he skips a session, and he hasn't been to a single one, how much money is Royce going to owe them? Is it possible he's getting fined more than he's making?

If you change a few words in his comments about his demands not being met, it sounds uncomfortably close to something a hostage taker would yell through a megaphone.
 
Losing respect with each tweet for the man.

Same here. I keep thinking I should unfollow him, but it really is like a trainwreck or a car accident. I know I should look away but I can't. Really sad.

A few not so bold predictions -
- Royce will never play for the Rockets again.
- They would trade him right now if they could get anything greater than Andrew Skoglund in return (they can't).
- This is going continue to spiral and get worse before it gets better (and I doubt it actually gets better)
- If he spent as much time on his jump shot as he did on twitter he'd be unstoppable.

Such a sad situation. Doesn't he have anyone in his support system that can give him a call and say "look Royce you are destroying yourself and everything you were trying to advocate for, step away from the phone."



I also have a theoretical question. Any insinuation that Royce is lazy or just needs to man up is quickly met by "you don't understand mental illness." I think everyone would agree that there are lazy people in the world and people that do need to "man up" at times. If there are people like that in the general population then it logically follows that there are people with mental illness that are lazy and need to "man up" at times. My theoretical question is that if you have a lazy person with mental illness that is also lazy how do to differentiate between issues cause by the illness and issues caused by laziness where they may be hiding behind the illness. I'm not saying Royce falls into this category. I'm not close enough to the situation or Royce to judge. He's trying to raise awareness though, being more aware makes people think about things, when I did this question popped into my head and was curious what others thought.
 
I also have a theoretical question. Any insinuation that Royce is lazy or just needs to man up is quickly met by "you don't understand mental illness." I think everyone would agree that there are lazy people in the world and people that do need to "man up" at times. If there are people like that in the general population then it logically follows that there are people with mental illness that are lazy and need to "man up" at times. My theoretical question is that if you have a lazy person with mental illness that is also lazy how do to differentiate between issues cause by the illness and issues caused by laziness where they may be hiding behind the illness. I'm not saying Royce falls into this category.

This actually begs another question. Royce is demanding a lot of things, and his employer seems to be giving on a lot of things that aren't customary. The additional things that they aren't giving in on are things that he claims he needs (and likely actually does) "for [his] health." People say, "You don't have GAD, he needs these things."

What's to stop people from pretending to have mental illnesses just to get special concessions made? Royce acting like a prima donna is sort of giving the impression that you can demand things without proving yourself, and that it should be catered to in the interest of mental health. Why wouldn't people want a piece of that?

(Please note that I don't in any way think that Royce is faking - I'm just saying it's sort of setting a precedent.)
 
(Please note that I don't in any way think that Royce is faking - I'm just saying it's sort of setting a precedent.)


Maybe - but the precedent I believe this is setting is NBA organizations will draft a total of 0 further players with any anxiety issues from this point on... pretty much the opposite of what he's setting out to do.
 
Maybe - but the precedent I believe this is setting is NBA organizations will draft a total of 0 further players with any anxiety issues from this point on... pretty much the opposite of what he's setting out to do.

I think that will be the ultimate result, too.
 

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