Royce White refuses assignment to D-League (UPDATE: Rockets suspend him)

I believed he had both.

 

I’ve tried my very best to stay out of this whole mess of a Royce White situation (…or, as much as I can on an internet fan forum), but I think that, now, a breaking point has been reached.

First, it’s hardly uncommon for anyone to “overvalue” a college player because of a great performance against top-tier competition on a national stage. Royce White was able to do that against a stacked Kentucky squad, and like most of us, the assumption was that he could play at the pro level.
And he can. Whether or not he can at a mid-first-round or a second round level (which is what I always believed Royce to be, despite appearances) is another question for another time.

Or even another organization.

I’ll be frank. I have absolutely NO knowledge of the travails of those with mental health disorders. Outside of my own idiot-savant lapses, I don’t recognize anybody’s mental illness anywhere near as well as I play a mental patient on TV. So I personally hesitate to go so far as to say that this whole scenario is orchestrated and/or manufactured with malice or surreptitiously evil intent by Royce.

One of the very first rules (spoken or unspoken) about mental illness is that actions are largely unpredictable, despite the frequency or persistence of any triggers of an episode in an individual. Nobody can “profile” mental illness to the point that someone can say that this person will do this or this person won’t do that.

Mental illness is, theoretically, one of the vestiges of human behavior where the unknown is the norm.

But after having given myself as much of an opportunity as I can to not only digest some of the ailments of Royce White, but to also try and determine what may actually be in the best interests of the young man’ s future, the Rockets may need to seriously consider some solution that ultimately moves Royce White.

Whatever the people who are closest to Royce professionally and personally are telling him or showing him isn’t helping him. Whatever the Rockets believed or hoped for or initially understood about the dynamics of the relationship with Royce is now apparently not true. And in the last analysis, whatever accommodations may need to be made for Royce may not ultimately be worth what he could potentially bring to the table as a player for the Rockets.

It may indeed take Royce a great deal of time and travail in order to adapt in the way he needs to a potentially hectic and chaotic schedule as an NBA professional. I wouldn’t wish the difficulties of Royce’s perspective on life on the worst of us―the mind can be as bottomless a pit of despair as it can be an unemptying wellspring of faith and belief. And understanding that, to me, means that an entirely different forum has to be involved if the goal (as it should be) is to help him acclimate to different types of social responsibilities and environments as smoothly as possible, so that he can be as productive a person as possible.

That cannot be effectively done at a professional level (particularly sports) without some willingness by Royce himself to accept that he is now a professional, and part of dealing with his illness is attempting to conform to what the rest of us perceive as normal behavior as much as he can.
He has a job to do. He receives compensation (and for that matter, preferential treatment) for that job. He has bosses to answer to. He has teammates who expect to be able to depend on him. He has a responsibility as such a high-profile person in a high-profile position to set a higher standard for himself, if he truly wants to be a pioneer in how mental illnesses are dealt with in the mainstream of our society.

Those are goals, apparently to me, that are as yet beyond young Royce’s reach or grasp, no matter how well he gets somebody to articulate them for him. Whether or not being a professional athlete and mental health advocate is necessary is becoming more and more obviously an experiment for another time.

Or even another person.

God help me, but I’d sooner have Ron Artest/Metta World Peace advocate the possibility of being a functional human being with mental illness than Royce White.

We all try to shape and influence the environments we live in as best we are able. It gives us all a sense of order and control and predictability that most everything about our personalities stem from.

But as a society, we all must learn to contribute to the whole in positive and constructive ways. “My-way-or-the-highway” isn’t even working in the United States Senate.

I hope that Royce White can learn to do that. He is young and has some talent. If he can find a way to join the rest of us, instead of insisting that everyone else join him, he could be that advocate for his condition that he professes.

I’d be doubly happy for him if it happens somewhere else.

Nothing spurs a change of conscience and perspective like unintended consequences. And a test of character, I’ve found, is as sure a way as any to determine the state of Royce’s mind and heart.

And perhaps, the nobility (or at least transparency) of his actions.

 

I think the saddest thing about this situation is he literally will never have another job as good as this in his entire life and he is refusing to work. I'm not just talking about the money. His job is playing basketball!

 

I hope this brat is not earning any of the money he signed prior to his revealing himself to be a douchebag, he deserves to be fined for every game (NBDL game douchebag) he misses and fined for every practice (NBDL practice douchebag) he misses as well, do not let this guy earn until he accpets the #protocol.

Zero sympathy for someone who will not even try, and again, I hope he desn't earn a cent for his actions until he at least trys to be a part of the #organization.

 

Cut him.

 

Best post in the thread. Fine him, ignore him, move on.

 

What other team would take him after seeing his rants on twitter. It's sad but that's the path he chose. In college, he managed a way to deal with his anxiety issues w/o serious problems. I'm assuming the assistance the ROX organization is offering him is significantly an improvement. Yet, he wants everything to be perfect for him. That is his mistake. One, I fear, will be his ondoing. If he had shown some willingness to compromise, only then would other teams have been remotely interested. Unfortunately, I think it is too late.

 

#Truth
#Protocol
#AnxietyTroopers
#shutthef***up

 

Whack A$$ Loser!!!

 

"Fear is the mind-killer." #GomJabbar

? When was the last time he practiced w/the team? How much of training camp did he participate in?

Thanks in advance.

 

Boy I really hated this pick when it was announced and I hate it even more now....... PJIII would have been a million times better of a pick than this trash.....smdh

 

you mean #whacka$$loser? Can't understand the meaning without hashtag.

 

I don't know how to embed tweets or whatever but he's digging a hole as deep as the crust of the earth for himself.

Royce White ‏@Highway_30
“@jdthree17: @Highway_30 f*#k ur rights. Anxiety is a 1st world problem. You think starving children n Africa are suffering from that?" YES!

 

there's somebody sponsoring him. Somebody that we don't know is pushing or supporting him to do this. i find it very fishy he had a well professionally edited pre-draft anxiety video.

 

Did Royce White say curse word.

 

No he responded to the guy by saying "Yes!"

 

Okay.

 

Jalen Rose has a video on youtube about the easiest way to lose every penny you have if you're an NBA basketball player and one of the main reasons is starting a record label. Let him take those millions of dollars and waste all of his money on a record label. Then when he tries to get a real job (because he is blacklisted from the NBA) let us see him try and pull this "protocol" bull$*%t. He'll get fired so fast it'll make his head spin. This guy is on a downward spiral and will ultimately be his own demise. Let him go on his own righteous path of self destruction.

 

sorry, have to correct this, because it is part of the reason so many people here are frustrated.

Royce did in fact play in the Summer League. And he showed flashes of brilliance to get us excited.

But alas...

 

Curious of those that live in Texas, could Royce White obtain a hand gun with his criminal record and mental illness history. I saw a reply in a Yahoo blog that said "Don't give this guy a gun" and it made me wonder.