So what if he has a panic attack on one of those long flights to Toronto or New York. I don't want him to hijack the plane and fly it into the CN tower or something.
It's not as simple as people think, riding the bus. The rockets will sometimes leave that same night. They have their own plane, right? Flying out that late, on their own plane, probably means no waiting in lines. IIRC, players have tweeted "wheels up" as early as two hours post game. I can't see Royce beating them anywhere, maybe San Antonio. He may not miss games anyway, but he's going to miss team meetings, morning walk-throughs/shootarounds, morning practices, tape sessions, etc. And that's assuming he doesn't run into heavy traffic. Don't the Vipers bus everywhere? He just needs to accept a DLeague assignment this season. It'll be a much smaller hurdle to climb than jumping into the NBA travel schedule.
I find that to be a stretch based on seeing several interviews of him prior to the draft. After Carl Herrara's post in the college forum titled "Royce White" I think after the Kentucky loss, I became interested in all his interviews. In one during a draft combine he even states that he can't lie well because it causes anxiety so he found it better to lay all his cards on the table. Plus these are ad hoc interviews. He strikes me as one of the most open college recruits I've ever seen. He didn't downplay it; he allowed it to be a topic of discussion that he embraced. His coach was his doctor in that more than his agent. His agent would have told him not to interview and to leave everything to him. All GMs knew, that's why he fell to #16. Him getting picked there vs to Boston at 20-21, isn't because he downplayed anything. I'm not buying that. The Rockets trading 3 picks to foolishly take Griffin off of NJ's hands is more an example of Griffin and his agent downplaying things.
Why would I be kidding? Royce also asked for the the use of separate plane to carry his bus. Something like a C17 transport plane to be rented from the US Air Force. Morey has reached out to the White House over it but Obama refused to help the Rockets because Morey is a Romney supporter. If they can obtain such a jet, on certain road trips like GSW to SAC to LAL or NYK to PHI to WAS, he can fly into the initial city and bus around. Alternatively, Royce's agent has asked the Rockets to look into the possibility of a helicopter bus, which can be flown (and arrive faster) if he isn't having a panic issue, but can instead be driven when he is having an attack.
I'm not following the math. If it's 2 hours for "wheels up," Royce would have an 1 1/2 hour headstart on them -- 30 minutes to shower an he's off. Like you say, he might not beat them everywhere in a red-eye scenario, but how is he missing breakfast with them? Or any meetings? And if they fly late like that, they won't have morning meetings anyhow. And heavy traffic delays?? Like planes don't have delays, too. Does not compute.
HeyP, when players are projected to be top 5 or 10, they don't interview with all the teams lower than the projected team. On draft day, teams become players. I don't think rox interviewed gay either because he was projected top 5 or so. What happened with griffin happens a lot.
Does this sound like a guy that needs to a ride a bus, so badly that he's going to call in to work before he get all these things in writing? Either he downplayed it then, or he's lying now. Read more: http://basketball.realgm.com/wireta...ned_To_Cope_With_Fear_Of_Flying#ixzz28JGCZ1JE
I'm sure Jason Friedman, who has a man-crush on Royce, will volunteer to ride along with Royce and write diaries of their road trips. This is an marketing gold mine.
Wasn't Royce a top 10 pick based on talent until he started interviewing freely. That's my point. He didn't let his agent dictate to keep his mouth shut, because he wanted to express it. And ("not lying...talking about it openly"...paraphrasing) is from White in his post combine interview, and others,...i'm not making that up. Point is the Rockets did interview White and didn't interview Griffin. So the question, "had the rockets known about White" should also be asked about Griffin.
Does this mean Royce has to get a driver's license to operate the bus? What happens if his driver is sick or tired? Would Royce's anxiety act up, if he has to drive it? Don't they talk about basketball during flights? They don't always have a lot of time between games and have to sometimes talk strategy in-flight. I would think a pro basketball team's plane would have an easier time getting by a delay than one guy's bus. The airport likely knows who's on the plane, but who's going to know it's Royce's bus? In other words, who's going to get a higher priority, the whole team or Royce alone? Plus, a plane mostly gets delayed at take off and landing...a bus can be delayed anywhere along it's route. For morning shootarounds, etc. you may be right. I was mostly thinking about the longer trips, where he may have to travel for hours where the rockets may need a lot less to get in and go to bed quickly. I guess he'd make it, if he's not delayed. Just seems like a lot more things could go wrong riding a bus, considering travel time is longer, the cons of riding it are adding up.
Check this. Its 360 miles from houston to new orleans. That's about a 1.5 hr flight and a 6 hr drive. Rockets play home ,but have a game the next night in n.o. they finish @10, shower up and after coach spreaks, its 11 ish. Rockets are on the plane by 12, royce is driving a bus I guess or maybe he has a pro bus driver for that. Rockets are in n.o. @130 in their rooms by 230. Royce and his bus isn't even in crowley,la yet. He gets here at 5 ish, morning shootaround is what 11am 12pm? This dude just got in and settled at 5,6am. It doesn't make sense.
BTW, part of the issue regarding any special arrangement for White (a bus, in particular) is the NBA's salary cap rules. Specifically, if a team gives a player anything that's viewed as an extra benefit/gift of value, it raises an issue of circumventing the salary cap, even if the monetary value of such a thing is not big in light of how much players make anyway. For example, I remember that one year the Rockets kind of got in trouble with the NBA when JVG flew the team to Vegas when they had something like 3 days between a game in PHX and one in Portland and he didn't want the guys to get stuck in boring old Portland and wanted to give them some relaxation time. The trip ain't worth enough to really make a difference in salary, but the league is anal like that. So, to the extent that the Rockets are going to provide anything to White, they probably need to clear it with the NBA office first.
No. Especially not on a red-eye as in your scenario. Dudes like Battier will, but it isn't formal. And like I said before, noting your quotes of Royce saying he'll just chill on the plane, if he is comfortable on a bus he might spend that time watching video, studying reports and calling the coaches on the plane (you know we can do that now, we have the technology) rather than stressing at the airport and needed to chill and decompress on the plane. Think about what you are saying. My scenarios are in line with facts and what he could do on a bus for short travel. You are just finding negative in everything. Rockets don't have team meetings on short flights and don't have morning meetings after red-eyes. Stop making things up to prove an unnecessary point.
Players get 30 minutes sleep on that flight tops and get to bed at 3am. That is one crazy schedule. vs Royce on the bus. Royce is not driving the bus. White gets 5 hours sleep on the bus to NoLa, checks in at 5/6 am, gets another 3 hours easy. Who is fresher. Plus, according to Carl Herrara, the bus will have a hottub, shower and masseuse.
On non red-eye flights, he'd still be away from the team and they could be having informal meetings/tape sessions (which i know they have because they have tweeted pictures of it). Is the team suppose to go through things twice to accommodate him? It's a similar situation to a teacher who has to provide a separate lesson to one student because they can't be in class. I just find it hard to believe White won't be missing out on some key things/opportunities by being away from the team. The point was he downplayed it. If he's only scared leading up to the flight, shouldn't that time be cut short at the pro level? Teams have more control over their flight times, less waiting, etc.
Living the Rockstar life rookie season. Are they really gonna let him rent a private tour bus that bands use?
