Amazing. I wonder if anyone in the Rockets organization is nervous about this tweet. Who knows what he'll say, he's like a ticking time bomb.
Haven't seen this one before. It's becoming easier and easier to forecast the future around here. Kinda gives more respect to Morris for holding his tongue last season and sticking with it.
http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/11/rockets-experiment-with-different-frontcourt-lineups/ Hmmmmmmmm........
I have been consistent in my comments stating that it was a bad idea to give in to White and his bus idea. From the start I have said that it is important for the Rockets organization to set firm limits for White and to not enable White's extreme fear avoidance behaviors. If they had done that, White would have had to either face his fears or give up on his dream to play in the NBA. That is the only chance he would have to achieve any success in this league. A lot of posters bashed me and others who said that White needed to face his fears and take the planes like everyone else. Well meaning posters defended White and attacked posters like myself. Well, this is what happens when you enable White's extreme avoidance- he gets even more entitled, never takes responsibility for beating his disorder(s), and doesn't get a chance to crack the rotation. It's too early to tell whether White can stay in the league, but early indications are negative.
I feel for Royce, and I think it's a good thing that Rockets are trying to be flexible with him. I don't think his anxiety disorder disqualifies him for the NBA, if he can develop and play at a high level. But reading his Twitter, I think he comes off as really self-absorbed. How is he a humanitarian? Maybe it's just the natural vanity of youth.
Bill, I dont think you seem to understand the reasons why so many people were opposed to what your points were prior to the latest incident. To me, this seems like a completely unrelated topic of discussion. From my viewpoint, when we did not fully know what was going on with the bus situation, I knew that regardless of what the concern was, the Rockets were put in the corner by the fact that he is an employee, and they were dealing with a request that was directly linked to his mental illness. For them to simply do nothing it could have spelled disaster to both the Rockets reputation, and potentially on the legal front. IMO they did the right thing for themselves, and the NBA by working out a plan. However, I do understand what you are saying here that the only way for Royce to overcome his disability he needs to be able to face it head on. Thats not what Im saying though. For an organization like the Rockets, its just not that simple. They have to watch out for their own A$# and let the doctors be the ones who do the rehabilitation. Whatever has happened now does not seem to be anything directly related to Royce's disability, at least from my viewpoint. If its a character issue, they have full right to discipline and deal with the issue just as if a disabled veteran working at Target cussed out a customer should be disciplined as well. When it comes to players with baggage and PR coverups, we've heard this story before. We saw it with Adelman/T-Mac, Adelman/T-Will, McHale/T-Will, McHale/Lowry. If you follow the Rockets, you can spot it from a mile away when there is something going on. I doubt this has anything to do with Royce's mental disability.
The guy seems like a self-absorbed idiot who needs to be cut. The last thing we need is some guy who has not shown anything trying to make our whole season about himself, and turning this into a never-ending soap opera of self-pity. He skipped out of training camp posing an ultimatum to his new team, then causing a distraction by his outrageous demands which may or may not be caused by a legit illness and now he skips the first home game. Mental illness or not, this is not all about him, and he has not understood that. Then he calls himself a humanitarian and what not on Twitter and makes emotional, vague and cryptic updates as x110th said - this is really like T-Will times two. He will just continue to be a distraction and excuse every misbehavior with his alleged mental illness. We don't need that. Cut him now.
I'm sorry but the premise that Royce missing the opening of training camp and possibly threatening the team with legal action if they didn't accommodate him has nothing to do with his current situation then I will politely say that I disagree. I agree with you that the Rockets were put in a very tough spot and you may be right that legally and PR-wise, they felt they needed to give in to his requests. But I don't for a minute think that it had no repercussions for White's relationship with the Rockets or his inability to sniff the rotation for the foreseeable future.
Its unrelated in the fact that the Rockets have to treat this as an unrelated issue. If its tied to his mental health then yes, they have an obligation to work with him to be accommodating. Them giving into his request before might possibly have led to crippling him into a sense of entitlement that led to him getting disgruntled about playing time, yes I agree. However, there really wasn't anything they could do about that. Thats on his doctor, and his agent for poor management of their player/patient. The Rockets must treat this as a separate issue, or it could get them back in the hot seat. Most important thing for the Rockets to do now is to continue to work with his doctors requests if they come from the doctor(not necessarily his agent), but move him to the D-League as soon as the season starts, or allow him to be inactive & work from Houston if he is unhappy. For the Rockets, there just has to be clear definitions of expectations from both sides. There is nothing in his contract that states whether or not he is entitled to a certain amount of playing time. The Rockets ate around 4 mil in salary this preseason when they cut guaranteed contracts. They might have to just live with the fact that they will most likely have to eat his 1.7 mil guarantee in the Summer and let him pursue his other passions. Thats a risk Morey had to have known all along, and if he knew that they would have finally landed a star player in the preseason he might have thought differently about that pick knowing that this wouldn't necessarily be a totally rebuilding season. At this point, the Rockets are in a low risk position to just cut his butt and say peace after this season. Its not like he's shown future all-star abilities or anything just yet other than some fancy highlight passes. However, that doesn't change the fact that if this comes back to his "diagnosed" mental disabilities, they still have to oblige off the court. They signed up for that. On the court, who cares? If he can't cut it (which right now its obvious he can't), then peace out.
I'm not disagreeing with any of this. I have been sympathetic to the Rocket's position all along. White put them in a tight spot and they may have had no choice but to publicly comply. I suspected that White's team was threatening legal action when he started playing up his OCD and spoke as if the Rockets were obliged to allow his requests.
