Royce White headed to D-league??

[Bamacyclone]

Houston Chronicle story this am.Ultimate Rockets » Rockets seek answers as White goes missing

[GrindingAway]

We all know Royce isn't a diva, because we all know of personal stories about him stopping for pics with people's children, shaking hands, etc. Royce knew he had our support, and he reacted in kind.

NBA fans don't have that quasi-personal relationship with him. They don't know who he is or care what he does after a game - they want him to perform. They just don't care about his platform - not yet, anyway, and he isn't endearing himself to them.

He is hurting his own cause, both literally and figuratively. He is hurting his career, but he is also making it look like anxiety sufferers are high-maintenance prima donnas - and he is anything but that. I do NOT advocate for him hurtin his health, but he also has to make some concessions.

MAI adore Royce, I hope this works out.

This does't appear to be the same Royce we all grew to love at Iowa State. It may be mental illness, bad advice, lack of support system, whatever. I love ISU Royce, but it's hard to look at the current version as anything but a diva.

IMO he's blown a huge opportunity for his cause (forget the financial opportunity). He raised awareness and could have been a role model for people everywhere with mental illness if he stepped in and had success.

Intead he's pretty much guaranteed future players with anxiety are going to drop a couple rounds in a two round draft. Future players are going more likely to hide it to avoid being grouped in with him. Basically the opposite reaction he wanted.

I doubt it ends with the NBA either. There have to be other employers/people saying why would I deal with this?

In the end it was probably too much to ask a 21 yo with anxiety, but no one asked him to be a spokesperson.

Sad situation.

[gogagig]

Well, fellow rocket rookies Scott Machado and Donatas Motiejunas also got sent to the D League. So that in itself is not reason to panic. What is more concerning to me is this war that seems to be developing between the Rockets and Royce. And Royce throwing ambiguous accusations.

[Die4Cy]

Read the Chronicle article above and you see which way this is going.

Royce White needs to find a way to pull himself together for the benefit of himself, his team, and anyone with GAD. He really seems to be hanging by a thread.

Part of what made him such an effective advocate for his disorder when he was here and getting publicity was that he was proven to be able to be very effective and consistent despite it. His antics since the start of camp have wiped all that away. Now he can rightly be viewed as "erratic."

[Angie]

True. At the same time, I don't think most of us would cause a PR storm of this magnitude at that young age. For better or worse, most of us would probably be pretty quiet and get things done.

I have to agree with this. How many press statements has Royce put out at this point? I can think of at least two. How many does the average rookie who hasn't seen any minutes put out?

[CLONECONES]

@Highway_30 I'd waste my "Talent", to stand up for myself and what's right, regarding my health 10x's out 10. #Logical Player "Commodity" league.

@Highway_30 "your a COMMODITY" and "we'll support your health needs even if its inconvenient..." just don't go. My health can't afford such an ideal.

@Highway_30 Again My "Anxiety" is not well but not BAD, my main WORRY is being treated as a digit instead of a HUMAN, in the case of my health.

something has ****** him off

[Die4Cy]

Royce may not like being referred to as a commodity, but the fact of the matter is that he is. There are tons of guys who would jump at the chance to step in and do his job for less. The net effect of that is that everyone has to prove their own worth on the court and in the locker room, where RW hasn't been seen, if they want to make it or risk being replaced by someone else.

It would really help if RW didn't have to deal with Kelvin Sampson. That guy is a dick. But that's life in the bigs.

I want RW to be as comfortable with himself as possible, but if this is where he's digging in he isn't going to be around long.

[gogagig]

@Highway_30 I'd waste my "Talent", to stand up for myself and what's right, regarding my health 10x's out 10. #Logical Player "Commodity" league.
@Highway_30 "your a COMMODITY" and "we'll support your health needs even if its inconvenient..." just don't go. My health can't afford such an ideal.



@Highway_30 Again My "Anxiety" is not well but not BAD, my main WORRY is being treated as a digit instead of a HUMAN, in the case of my health.


something has ****** him off

Royce can't take the money, take multiple unexcused absences from practice, and then say it is because he is prioritizing his health, or that it is because he is being treated as a digit. Hold up your end of the bargain, Royce. And then people might actually listen when you complain about the other party not holding up their end of the bargain.

[Dryburn]

I don't know who Royce is listening to right now, or if he is doing this all on his own, but if he is getting advice, I think he is getting some very bad advice. If he is doing this all on his own, then he is making a huge mistake, imo.

Royce's thing about making his anxiety so public was to draw attention to the problem, and to show (I think) that with proper support and treatment, many people with certain mental illnesses can go forward doing what they want to do with their lives and being successful with them.

To many, what he is doing now just makes him look petty, immature, and selfish, and it is putting out the exact opposite impression of people dealing with anxiety that he wanted to show. After watching this fiasco, what other professional sports team would want to take a chance on any other athlete who comes out in high school or college and admits the he/she deals with a mental illness of some sort? What is happening now is drawing the wrong kind of attention to the problem.

Royce cannot ignore his health problem. However, imo, he needs to "man up" a lot more here, and deal with this problem, and with the team he is contracted to, in a more professional manner. He can't be calling out the Rockets and their managment in tweets or on message boards. He signed a contract. I'm sure there are probably clauses in there that specify expectations of the athlete being in shape, attending practices, publicly commenting on contract disputes and concerns, etc. As a professional, you deal with those things through your agent, and you deal with those things before you sign the contract.

My hunch is that Royce has lost interest in playing in the NBA. The money the first year is guaranteed, although if a player totally fails to live up to his side of the contract, I'm not sure how that would work. If Royce just walks away with the money and never plays, or really even tries to play.......that is really going to make him look bad, imo.

I'm not sure why he does not seem to realize this, but his actions now are doing more damage to his cause of bringing anxiety and other mental illnesses out in the open. Instead of moving forward and advancing the cause, his actions are actually setting it back, imo.

[CycloneErik]

He needs to stop tweeting. I don't think any of us disagree on that.

Last night, Royce tweeted that he should not have been so public with his disorder. If he hadn't been public about it, and this were going on, does he thing that it wouldn't have come out? People would want to know why he's absent, and it would break.

He went about it the right way before. I'm sympathetic here, I've even had extra accommodations this fall, but there's a point at which you need to find a way to get to work. Certainly, complaining about the team's management in public isn't going to help. Solve it quietly with them behind closed doors and drive on.

[gocubs2118]

He just needs to shut down his twitter account, it's not helping him and it's just making him look worse. Just stop playing everything out in social media, nothing good will come of that.

[Dryburn]

The latest:

Ultimate Rockets » Lack of playing time one of issues in Royce White conflict with Rockets

This is not good. I don't think it is going to end well at all, for either party.

[Messi]

Royce White ‏@Highway_30I WILL continue, like I have done the past 72 hours, expressing my concerns to Doc. Fink, about the nature of the prob Between #rockets n I.

Jesus. Please SOMEONE take this kid's twitter app off his phone.

I swear he wakes up and is like "what can i tweet to make myself look even worse in this situation?"

[ISUAgronomist]

This is not good. I don't think it is going to end well at all, for either party.

The Rockets, however, have no plans to trade or release White, the person familiar with their thinking said.

[cybsball20]

The more this plays out, the worse Royce is looking. The "playing time" comments are nothing but Prima Donna, especially considering he didn't go to training camp and showed up out of shape.

I really find it hard to see a scenario where he EVER sets foot on an NBA court