Royce White on ESPN Outside the Lines, January 22nd

I know most of the board doesn't agree with me on McGrady, but there's a parallel there. Team doctors said his knee was fine and McGrady said it wasn't. The team said he should shut up and play since their doctors said he was fine. McGrady tried and struggled badly. He ended up not trusting their doctors and going with his own doctor for microfracture. Of course, the Rockets reacted to a player taking charge of his own health in the same way in both cases. It's great they have doctors to help the players. But, at the end of the day, every person must be responsible for his own health. If Royce thinks the anxiety will get so intense he might off himself, than yeah he should probably say he's too injured to play.

The Rockets have another precedent with Eddie Griffin that isn't too flattering. He also had a mental disorder and ultimately did commit suicide (or something close to it). The Rockets did try to help him, I know, and there is only so much they can do. But, I also think it's interesting that part of the organizational reaction was to separate him from the team and try to protect the rest of the players from fallout from EG.

Maybe the answer in the end is that reasonable accomodation for mental illness isn't possible in that industry. Griffin's depression couldn't be accomodated. Even accomodating every one of White's demands (or especially so), there would be so many nights that he can't play for one reason or another. You can't entrust too much responsibility in a player who often can't show up, just like you can't entrust much responsibility in a player whose knees are shot.

 

By the way, to everyone that keeps saying "cut him", you realize that as a first round pick he has a guarranteed three year deal? Cutting him isn't the best option right now because you have money and a first round pick invested in the guy and if you cut him you owe him every cent of that contract. The Rockets are looking for a way of getting something out of the guy besides bad publicity. I just don't see them eating his contract half way through his first season.

 

The Rockets used multiple doctors including independents to diagnose Tracy, and they all said the same thing. Tracy finally found a doctor who said microfracture surgery "might" help and he told the media his decision before even telling the team. Everyone has their own pain thresh holds, but according to the doctors Tracy's knees were injured at the same level that numerous other NBA players were suffering and playing thru. And it's not like after the surgery Tracy came back and became an all star again to prove that surgery was the fix he needed.

Absolutely, but he also should have been more honest about his willingness to confront his fears prior to being drafted. Currently it comes across more like he had no intention of working on his fear of flying, and just took the guaranteed money and intends to move on with his life. I don't think he is faking his condition, I just question his willingness to work on treating it, rather than just finding ways to live with it that make him feel "safe". If he never intends on progressing in his therapy to the point that flying is tolerable, then that's kind of like a person who injures themselves and refuses to do physical therapy, but wants to get paid because the doctors will confirm that he is too injured to play.

 

I don't want to re-argue McGrady again. The only lesson I'm taking from that episode is that the player took charge of his own health. Maybe his decision was right or wrong, but it's his health and his choice in the end, whether there is a protocol or not.

I do think you're right about White's dishonesty. The honest thing would have been to negotiate all this crap before signing the contract. Of course, he'd never get his contract that way.

 

Interesting point. Perhaps there is a compromise that can be made to lessen the Rockets' exposure. I believe someone suggested a certain amount of excused absences as opposed to an open-ended situation. One could liken it to disability time or sick leave...

 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=faking-mental-illness&print=true

Royce isn't faking his anxiety disorder, but he has deluded himself to thinking that any sort of stress is a symptom of his anxiety disorder. The hats, the driving in the fog, it's ridiculous. If I see a picture frame hung slightly uneven, it will annoy me so much I have to fix it. It's normal.

 

I would be more willing to accept this point of view if Royce didn't skip out on appointment with an excellent doctor the Rockets made for him.

Or if he didn't rely on a general practicioner from Minnesota.

On the one hand he wants the Rockets to take his problems seriously, but on the other he doesn't seem to be taking the steps to truly overcome them.

 

I don't care if i get grief on this, but an anxiety disorder is not a mental health issue, nor is it in any kind of way a mental disability. Anxiety disorders at any level is a behavioral condition, I work with and am related to people with mental disabilities and if this a**hole wants to claim that he is mentally disabled, I would love for him to come by to my father's non-profit orginization where we give mentally disabled and physically handicapped people jobs and schooling. Then maybe this douche would truly understand what a mental disability is, suck up his ego and shut his face.

 

If I could this would be the first rep I'd of given out.

 

I see no problem with White leading the charge in dealing with his own health. Most of us are reasonable enough to understand NBA money means nothing if the young man ends up too ill to enjoy it. His mental illness should be handled with the seriousness of a blown out knee. There are (often) physical underpinnings to mental illnesses.

But that isn't the core of the issue with White. The problems are all in how he has dealt with the situation. He waited until signing his contract to start making demands. He understated his condition to the Rockets. He refused going to the DL, initially claiming that the assignment was retribution because he advocated for himself and continuing that accusation up through his recent publicity campaign.

This whole thing hasn't diverged much from the initial Feigen report that connected White's hissy fits with both playing time demands and his DL assignment.

 

Having known some people with diagnosed mental illness, I can say my experience has been it often manifests itself as behavior we'd normally punch someone for.

I mean...that's the whole idea of mental illness. They act weird because their brains are weird. In White's case, he might just be so scared he's looking for help in the only way he knows how.

 

How do you work on a "fear of flying?" Isn't that like asking a bipolar sufferer to work on "emotional stability?"

All due respect, I think you ought to spend some time around the mentally ill. That stuff is legit. We don't diss a guy who has no legs for not being able to run - but we're perfectly fine criticizing people with weird brains for acting...weird.

 

This has been well addressed in other White threads by various posters, those who suffer from mental illness and those who treat it.

Search the White threads for comments from actual doctors who deal with these disorders. Those posters commented enough to provide information on the disorders and opinions on the practitioner White sees. White can deal with his for of flying. He can improve his condition.