The Curious Case of Royce White

Royce White is rarely seen in a Rockets jersey

Royce White is a super talented basketball player. He was fortunate to be born with both the size and natural talent to have the opportunity to turn these skills into a career playing a game. A game that from what I have read and heard, he truly does love. Unfortunately, life isn’t so simple and the fact that someone is talented at something does not mean the situation is conducive to them actually achieving it.

If you haven’t followed the story of Royce White, he is a 21 year old Minnesotan who left the University of Minnesota to go to the Iowa State after his anxiety disorder led to problems at his hometown school. Once at Iowa State, White flourished and if he didn’t have his anxiety disorder he very likely would have been drafted in the top 10 and possibly even in the first few picks of the 2012 NBA Draft.

This topic is very close to my heart and I have followed the Royce White story quite closely due to my affiliation with both basketball and mental health. I want so desperately for Royce White to succeed and show how people with mental health issues can create an environment, with help from others, which allows them to thrive. So far however, Royce’s NBA career is off to a very disturbing start.

White was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the 16^th pick in the Draft as team after team were turned off by dealing with his anxiety disorder, including a fear of flying, which of course is a staple of life in the NBA. As you can see in this Grantland video, draft day was a traumatic experience for Royce and teams were not jumping at the chance to take a guy that everyone seemed to agree was one of the most talented available. The shock when his agent announces the Boston Celtics weren’t interested says a lot. The Celtics, as well as being my own favourite team, were strongly linked with White and many thought if anyone was willing to take a chance on him, it would be the Celtics. Much like I want White to succeed in the NBA, I specifically wished he would succeed on the Celtics.

After being drafted by the Rockets, White went about working out an agreement with the club regarding how his condition would be handled. He missed much of preseason as he didn’t want to commit to the process until this agreement was in place. Eventually they seemed to sort it out and White reported for duty. Since then, his relationship with the Rockets seems to have gone from bad to worse, as this week he has rejected being delegated for D-League (the NBA minor league) duty for the second time.

White says publicly that the D-League is unable to cater for his condition and also says the Rockets’ own team doctors agree with this. He also contends that the Rockets’ front office have chosen to ignore the advice of their own doctors and made a decision purely from a business and/or basketball standpoint, as is their right.

White admits that this isn’t simply a matter of playing the blame game as it’s not a black and white situation. The Rockets don’t know how to handle the situation and there is no framework or precedent to follow, thus causing this turmoil now.  Some of White’s quotes from an interview with Justin Termine are very interesting as it paints a picture of a much more complicated situation than simply a guy who won’t “man up” and fall in line.

But therein lies the conundrum. On one hand you have a basketball organisation that care about building a team and winning games. Sure that does involve managing all types of personalities and issues, but at a certain point, a club will contend that someone simply isn’t worth their trouble. On the other hand you have a human being who is trying to chase a dream and a career, which by his own admission, isn’t at this point capable of creating an environment in which he can do so.

The Rockets knew White was no ordinary case when they drafted him and that it was always going to be a risky situation; however they would also like to believe that he owes them something as they took the chance on him and could have taken someone else. White would contend that he was honest from the start about his situation and admitted even prior to the draft that it was entirely possible he would never actually play in the NBA.

Over the years NBA teams have helped players through all sorts of personal problems. Drug and gambling problems have been well documented and there are millions of stories we have never heard, so what is it so specific to mental health that is causing the problem now?

It is my opinion; much like White’s, that NBA teams don’t know how to handle this situation and probably don’t take it seriously enough, simply due to a lack of education on the subject. Society as a whole still believes that mental health is something to deal with alone or better yet, ignore. Houston would say they are doing their best to help and in a lot of ways I actually believe them too. The problem isn’t their desire to help or fix the situation; it’s that they truly are flying blind.

Is the NBA simply a place where people like White will never be able to succeed? Is an anxiety disorder the kryptonite to basketball talent and in the future it will be an instant blackballing as teams continue to have little interest in helping out troubled players? I would like to believe that is not the case.

If society can learn about and accept mental health issues, then the NBA, as a reflection of society, will also evolve to handle it more appropriately. The abuse White has been receiving on Twitter, which he often retweets, is a reflection of an opinion in society about those suffering from these issues. Too many people think he should simply “shut up, get on the plane and play basketball”. People are actually offended that someone is “wasting” the talent that they themselves would kill to have been blessed with. But Royce White didn’t ask to be born with his basketball talent just like he didn’t ask to be born with his anxiety disorder. In fact, he may very well be willing to give up his talent if it meant also giving up the anxiety disorder.

Royce White does owe it to himself to do everything in his own power to overcome these issues and have a real go at an NBA career, but he doesn’t owe it to anyone else, least of all those who are jealous of his opportunity. The Rockets owe it to themselves to do everything in their power to put White in a situation to succeed as well.  They don’t owe White anything, but they are the ones who knowingly took this chance and it would be a waste of their own resources and a draft pick if they simply had enough and didn’t try to put such a talented player in a position to show that talent.

At this stage it appears as though we are witnessing a Mexican standoff as both sides wait for the other to blink. The problem is that both sides believe they are right, whilst in reality neither side is actually wrong either.

I hope they can get together and really figure out how to handle this going forward and perhaps create the framework for future players with similar issues to follow. Royce White is a test case for how the NBA sees players with these sorts of issues and if he succeeds it will provide a sense of optimism for any young person with a mental health issue also chasing that dream or any dream for that matter.

The sports world is a microcosm of society and this issue, unfortunately for them, is actually bigger than Royce White or the Houston Rockets and for all concerned I hope we see a happy ending.