After hearing some of the comments attributed to Royce it seems like he's making demands that somebody with 5-7 years of success in the league would demand. There is no way that the Houston Rockets organization would invest as much money into him with his contract and not be willing to work with him to see him succeed. Maybe he's been listening to the wrong people and his publicist isn't doing him any favors. He needs to get some perspective because if he doesn't the Houston Rockets are going to say the hell with him he's just not worth the trouble and the one who will lose out is Royce White.
Royce White headed to D-league??
- Thread starter isuchicago
- Start date
As a 21 year old with my own share of mental health problems I couldn't imagine doing what he's doing. I manage to quietly march along without expecting the world to bend to my own ****. So I'm kind of with Erik when he says most of us would not self-aggrandize in this manner to begin with.
Maybe severe cases don't react as I think but with my low level (usually limited to sleeplessness, general worry and some social anxiety) the last thing I would do in a more severe case is put myself out there like he has. I would just think you would want to limit the spotlight on your own issues. Awareness is one thing. Engaging in public banter seems counterproductive and again, I would think that if you can step out in front of thousands of people and perform without a single instance of trouble for a whole year, you can handle practice.
*This is coming from someone who believes that mental disorders (ADHD and such) are largely overdiagnosed.
I love Royce but he's gotta cool it on the tweeting. He's picking a fight with anyone and everyone talking bad about anxiety. He's gotta let that stuff slide and just worry about himself.
This is not going to end well for White. Sure, he let all the teams know about his disorder, but he also INSISTED that it would not be a problem. It sounds like the owner is already preparing fans for him to never see the floor in Houston and if what Bullard says is true, there is no excuse. THere was also no excuse to not be in shape an no excuse for missing training camp. I thought he was supposed to have one of the best agents in the biz? Certainly doesn't seem like it.
Royce White at odds with Rockets over flying - Yahoo! Sports
here's yahoo story pretty much same as every other link.
here's yahoo story pretty much same as every other link.
Im so angry that Royce is having trouble like this. I thought maybe that he was going to be able to deal with his disorder and play basketball Last year he seemed fine, but something has gone wrong.
This is what pisses me off (a little)...he did this at Iowa State too and it sorta ****** me off too. As a person with a minor anxiety disorder, he's making it hard to like him.
There's people out there with worse disorders believe it or not guys. They go through life dealing with similar things to Royce. You have cases where it affects performance, but most people deal with it. Royce isn't. Going public about it like this makes him look like an ***.
He'll be out of Houston after this year.
I hesitate to make value judgements like what's more debilitating because I haven't walked a mile in Royce's shoes. I will say I think he's made the mistake of letting mental illness define him, he's inextricably bound himself to it with this one man publicity campaign, which is positive in some senses. I think however now it's an anchor thats just to big for him to bear in such a public way.
This does't appear to be the same Royce we all grew to love at Iowa State. It may be mental illness, bad advice, lack of support system, whatever. I love ISU Royce, but it's hard to look at the current version as anything but a diva.
IMO he's blown a huge opportunity for his cause (forget the financial opportunity). He raised awareness and could have been a role model for people everywhere with mental illness if he stepped in and had success.
Intead he's pretty much guaranteed future players with anxiety are going to drop a couple rounds in a two round draft. Future players are going more likely to hide it to avoid being grouped in with him. Basically the opposite reaction he wanted.
I doubt it ends with the NBA either. There have to be other employers/people saying why would I deal with this?
In the end it was probably too much to ask a 21 yo with anxiety, but no one asked him to be a spokesperson.
Sad situation.
Well, fellow rocket rookies [FONT=Arial, Tahoma, Verdana]Scott Machado and Donatas Motiejunas also got sent to the D League. So that in itself is not reason to panic. What is more concerning to me is this war that seems to be developing between the Rockets and Royce. And Royce throwing ambiguous accusations.[/FONT]
Read the Chronicle article above and you see which way this is going.
Royce White needs to find a way to pull himself together for the benefit of himself, his team, and anyone with GAD. He really seems to be hanging by a thread.
Part of what made him such an effective advocate for his disorder when he was here and getting publicity was that he was proven to be able to be very effective and consistent despite it. His antics since the start of camp have wiped all that away. Now he can rightly be viewed as "erratic."
Royce White needs to find a way to pull himself together for the benefit of himself, his team, and anyone with GAD. He really seems to be hanging by a thread.
Part of what made him such an effective advocate for his disorder when he was here and getting publicity was that he was proven to be able to be very effective and consistent despite it. His antics since the start of camp have wiped all that away. Now he can rightly be viewed as "erratic."
I have to agree with this. How many press statements has Royce put out at this point? I can think of at least two. How many does the average rookie who hasn't seen any minutes put out?
Royce may not like being referred to as a commodity, but the fact of the matter is that he is. There are tons of guys who would jump at the chance to step in and do his job for less. The net effect of that is that everyone has to prove their own worth on the court and in the locker room, where RW hasn't been seen, if they want to make it or risk being replaced by someone else.
It would really help if RW didn't have to deal with Kelvin Sampson. That guy is a ****. But that's life in the bigs.
I want RW to be as comfortable with himself as possible, but if this is where he's digging in he isn't going to be around long.
It would really help if RW didn't have to deal with Kelvin Sampson. That guy is a ****. But that's life in the bigs.
I want RW to be as comfortable with himself as possible, but if this is where he's digging in he isn't going to be around long.
Royce can't take the money, take multiple unexcused absences from practice, and then say it is because he is prioritizing his health, or that it is because he is being treated as a digit. Hold up your end of the bargain, Royce. And then people might actually listen when you complain about the other party not holding up their end of the bargain.
I don't know who Royce is listening to right now, or if he is doing this all on his own, but if he is getting advice, I think he is getting some very bad advice. If he is doing this all on his own, then he is making a huge mistake, imo.
Royce's thing about making his anxiety so public was to draw attention to the problem, and to show (I think) that with proper support and treatment, many people with certain mental illnesses can go forward doing what they want to do with their lives and being successful with them.
To many, what he is doing now just makes him look petty, immature, and selfish, and it is putting out the exact opposite impression of people dealing with anxiety that he wanted to show. After watching this fiasco, what other professional sports team would want to take a chance on any other athlete who comes out in high school or college and admits the he/she deals with a mental illness of some sort? What is happening now is drawing the wrong kind of attention to the problem.
Royce cannot ignore his health problem. However, imo, he needs to "man up" a lot more here, and deal with this problem, and with the team he is contracted to, in a more professional manner. He can't be calling out the Rockets and their managment in tweets or on message boards. He signed a contract. I'm sure there are probably clauses in there that specify expectations of the athlete being in shape, attending practices, publicly commenting on contract disputes and concerns, etc. As a professional, you deal with those things through your agent, and you deal with those things before you sign the contract.
My hunch is that Royce has lost interest in playing in the NBA. The money the first year is guaranteed, although if a player totally fails to live up to his side of the contract, I'm not sure how that would work. If Royce just walks away with the money and never plays, or really even tries to play.......that is really going to make him look bad, imo.
I'm not sure why he does not seem to realize this, but his actions now are doing more damage to his cause of bringing anxiety and other mental illnesses out in the open. Instead of moving forward and advancing the cause, his actions are actually setting it back, imo.
Royce's thing about making his anxiety so public was to draw attention to the problem, and to show (I think) that with proper support and treatment, many people with certain mental illnesses can go forward doing what they want to do with their lives and being successful with them.
To many, what he is doing now just makes him look petty, immature, and selfish, and it is putting out the exact opposite impression of people dealing with anxiety that he wanted to show. After watching this fiasco, what other professional sports team would want to take a chance on any other athlete who comes out in high school or college and admits the he/she deals with a mental illness of some sort? What is happening now is drawing the wrong kind of attention to the problem.
Royce cannot ignore his health problem. However, imo, he needs to "man up" a lot more here, and deal with this problem, and with the team he is contracted to, in a more professional manner. He can't be calling out the Rockets and their managment in tweets or on message boards. He signed a contract. I'm sure there are probably clauses in there that specify expectations of the athlete being in shape, attending practices, publicly commenting on contract disputes and concerns, etc. As a professional, you deal with those things through your agent, and you deal with those things before you sign the contract.
My hunch is that Royce has lost interest in playing in the NBA. The money the first year is guaranteed, although if a player totally fails to live up to his side of the contract, I'm not sure how that would work. If Royce just walks away with the money and never plays, or really even tries to play.......that is really going to make him look bad, imo.
I'm not sure why he does not seem to realize this, but his actions now are doing more damage to his cause of bringing anxiety and other mental illnesses out in the open. Instead of moving forward and advancing the cause, his actions are actually setting it back, imo.
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CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
He needs to stop tweeting. I don't think any of us disagree on that.
Last night, Royce tweeted that he should not have been so public with his disorder. If he hadn't been public about it, and this were going on, does he thing that it wouldn't have come out? People would want to know why he's absent, and it would break.
He went about it the right way before. I'm sympathetic here, I've even had extra accommodations this fall, but there's a point at which you need to find a way to get to work. Certainly, complaining about the team's management in public isn't going to help. Solve it quietly with them behind closed doors and drive on.
Last night, Royce tweeted that he should not have been so public with his disorder. If he hadn't been public about it, and this were going on, does he thing that it wouldn't have come out? People would want to know why he's absent, and it would break.
He went about it the right way before. I'm sympathetic here, I've even had extra accommodations this fall, but there's a point at which you need to find a way to get to work. Certainly, complaining about the team's management in public isn't going to help. Solve it quietly with them behind closed doors and drive on.