Nice work, Derek. For real. I appreciated you saying "your move" rather than "it's up to you." The distinction is small but significant. The next move is indeed his to make but the idea that so many have suggested -- that it's in his power to do better -- is not necessarily up to him. It is not even up to him to do his best, as 'his best' may be out of reach for him. Or, put another way, his best might be what he's doing right now. I understand the frustration among the community of fans and I appreciate that the front office must be beyond frustrated. But that doesn't mean he can do what we all want from him. Your post was entirely reasonable, especially coming from a person that's had his own struggles, but reasoning with crazy people sometimes doesn't work because they're crazy. I'm a very high-functioning crazy person but do you think I'm always capable of thinking better of it before I hit "post" on an incendiary thing? Even stone cold sober, often I am not. I do my best but sometimes my best isn't good enough and that's true of most people with these sorts of troubles. Like this twitter thing. It's not going to yield a good result for him but that doesn't mean that he knows that. Or cares about it. Or cares about what happens to him. Or cares to get better. He might just need to be angry right now. And it might be that there's nothing anyone can do about that right now. And, subsequently, it might just be that the Rockets made a mistake picking him and will have to eat the pick and the investment and have him never play a game. Leave fear of flying out of it -- what could be more anxiety making than playing ball in front of millions of people, knowing what's on the line and knowing how many people are counting on you. Besides all that, he does not appear to be someone with nothing but generalized anxiety disorder. Maybe, but I doubt it. It would be weird for such an anxious person to be so free in expressing his dissatisfaction. He definitely does not seem anxious about tweeting. Bottom line, he can either do this or he can't. And he may be moved by your article to action. I expect he will read it. But if he can't play pro ball, it's not because he's an ******* (even if he is one); it's because he's sick. And hating people because they're sick is just crappy. That's why I've stopped reading Royce White threads here. Anyway, good for you for writing it and I hope you're doing well.
If Royce weren't going nuts on Twitter, I'd have a lot more respect for him and his quest. But he's all over the damn map in his tweets and has succeeded only in making himself appear immature and selfish. I get that he thinks fans don't really need to know the nuts and bolts of his sought-after protocol, but that's kind of hypocritical since he insists on sharing just about everything else.
Its such a shame that James Harden and the Rockets are having such a wonderful season and they are playing their butts off but yet, when it comes to the Rockets, people would be asking about Royce White stupid issues while forgetting about how bright and talented the other players are. The Rockets are better off without White and they don't need him to disrupt any locker room chemistry. Hopefully the Rockets can just move on from Royce and leave him in their rear-view mirror while he sits there on the drive way playing with his toy airplanes and his #protocol...
It's not just twitter he has not even tried to go to practice or to McAllen. If he had some bad experience travel down to the Vipers' nest (pun intended) or he had an attack during a Dleague game his reaction would be at least easier to comprehend. Zero on effort level and meanwhile getting interviewed talking about his record label, business ventures instead.....
Royce needs to stop googling quotes to tweet and tweet something that is actually insightful to the situation
I had seen some posts on Clutchfans before or around draft time mentioning some escapades White had had while at the University Minnesota in his brief stint there. They had called him childish, entitled, and worst of all fake. Nevertheless, guys when they are young get a free pass at times. They have a lot of maturing yet to do. Tons of stuff happens in college that each and every one of us has in our rear view window. Not the kinda memory you want to take a snapshot of and hang on your refrigerator and such. So when the Rockets drafted him I got on the bandwagon like everyone else. Arian Foster! Yeah. I can dig that. Everything that has happened since, however, has pretty much reinforced the evidence of the man's character which was established prior to his drafting. I long ago lost faith in the guy. He's not even someone worthy of my pity anymore. He's not worthy of any regard. If he wants to look up a psychiatric disease to diagnose himself with, the correct one would be not anxiety but rather narcissistic personality disorder. He has a warped view of reality which has proven unyielding over an extended period of time. He demands everyone to cater to his needs, and for his entire life until now his family has done so without forcing him in the slightest to compromise. 90% of individuals who come into contact with such a person will be disgusted; the other 10% believe his BS. Unfortunately, because he was a basketball prodigy growing up, this percentage was likely much higher in his family and community up through college. And then the Rockets were the final believers. Out in the real world, confidence and narcissism can be traits positively selected for. A lot our bosses would be "narcissistic" by definition. The difference is when one's view of the world and personality deficits become so apparent that they end up leading to failures in life, socially professionally and physically. Royce White upon entering the NBA crossed that threshold to the point where he will probably be debilitated for the rest of his life by his personality disorder. Unfortunately, the world is not so kind to narcissists fallen on hard times. Unlike anxiety disorders, personality disorders are actually more difficult to treat because they are not episodic, they are pervasive throughout life. I wish him the best; I certainly don't hate him for costing the Rockets a #16 draft pick. Who cares? One time we wasted a similar pick on BRYCE DREW of all people. But as far as his fate in the longterm, some of the more malicious fans on Clutchfans may end up getting their wish.
Nicely written! The most important thing is "to stop playing the victim". I hope this letter can help him turn around. I liked him the most out of the 3 rookies but not anymore. Stop making this a personal mission for those who have mental conditions. Stay away from Twitter like it never existed before. All he needs is simply go play some basketball before he loses any support he might have from the fans. And people around him should wake him up.
great article, I don't think it will get through to him, if he reads it. But I think it is really honest and even handed. They way you advocate for a people is to show greatness. Royce White doesn't get that. People overcome hardships in life to achieve great things. There was no protocals for the guy with no legs who ran in the olympics. Having a mental illness does make things harder. But he can advocate more for it by doing what everyone else does and showing that people with a mental illness can achieve great things. Instead of twitting about safety and why he CAN'T do something. It would be so much more powerful if he tweeted about how he did it and how having a mental illness made it harder, and how he had to overcome it to achieve what he wanted. The world is unfair. You can't expect it to bend to you - whether it's right or wrong for that to happen. But greatness is in confronting an unfair situation, and doing it anyway, and that brings awareness to your cause. I suspect, unfortunately, that Royce White just doesn't want to confront it.
The most important thing is to stop feeling like the victim. I sincerely doubt he's "playing" the victim. Of course we don't think of him as a victim but if he thinks of himself that way he kind of is one.
This may be too "glass half full," but the one positive I get from this Royce White situation is watching/reading people talk about their own struggles with mental illness and voice their opinions in support or in disagreement. However this situation ends, it's still good to see letters like this being made public. (I'm not giving White credit for it, though.) So, thanks for the heartfelt words.
I live with two anxious people, whom I love deeply, but they are want to share everything that's on their mind without recourse for its announcement. As for Royce, I think it's a form of release of the anxiety to unload all his thoughts onto a medium that he doesn't have to face. Twitter is easier than facing people and telling them what you're feeling.
Very nice article. It is more for us fans than it is for Mr. White. He will dismiss it as just a plea to "please ignorant fans" over "health protocol." But I appreciate the very gentle and reasonable call for level headed approach towards the issue. It is easy to forget that much of his behavior may be beyond White's control, at least until he gets/submits to proper treatment. And all sane attempts to understand him are for naught. Just hope this modern day Don Quixote slays his dragon sooner than later.
Let's look at what we know... in the Grantland documentary it shows Royce getting rejected by many teams save for Mchale who had faith in him. If anything Royce needs to see this faith as a reason to show some trust and faith in the guy who risked his hide to bring him in. It also shows him surrounded by people who can't beleive he dropped in the draft... people who he trusts... so in his mind he is supposed to be one of the best players in the nba. On top of that he indicates that david is "supposedly" the number one. That sort of language really makes me think that he thinks he is the best player and worth the Rockets bending to. But what I don't get is why he can't just play. just play Royce.
If the docs can't help this guy then what hope do most people have? He needs to over come this and play.
