Royce White's mental illness

Thought this deserved its own thread because of the complex nature of mental health and how professional sports franchises react to mental illness.
I saw the Real Sports interview and appearance on PTI.
White makes a lot of great points about mental health issues for professional athletes. Now he and the Rockets have agreed to terms and will report to the D-League on Feb. 11.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/sports/basketball/royce-white-and-rockets-reach-deal-on-mental-health-care.html?_r=0

 

Funny how he came to terms after his paychecks stopped. I don't know how he'll cope when the long road trips start in March for the team after a three-week spell in the state.

 

Maybe, but White was pretty convincing he doesn't care about the paychecks. He wants what's best for him.
The Rockets, though, balked when White asked for an independent doctor to determine his condition and if he was suited to play on gameday.
As he said on Real Sports, his anxiety could manifest into murderous behavior if not properly monitored by a physician. He had those checks and trust at Iowa State.

 

I heard an extensive interview with him a couple of weeks ago.

I'm pretty sympathetic to mental health issues. My knee-jerk reaction was to support the guy.

The more I listened to him, the more he came across as a guy with an excuse to avoid anything he didn't want to do, with incredibly vague notions of what his real issues are and what he felt the Rockets should do.

He's obviously very bright and very articulate. I'm not sure he's really all that interested in being a professional basketball player.

 

You have the right to an education as an American citizen. To be sure that his education was followed, accommodations were made for him to be a successful student. Playing in the NBA is not a right.

I'm as left leaning as the next guy, but I don't think any NBA team has to meet these accommodations. If it is not working out, cut bait and he can find something else to do for a living. If he does not have the mental and physical qualities to be an NBA player, he should not force an NBA team to meet his needs.

Rockets took a gamble, and it looks like it will not pay off for them.

 

White has claim to reasonable accommodations, but what's reasonable? A private charter bus to each road game, or even one road game, is not reasonable. The Rockets seem willing to accommodate him if he can show up to games and practices.

 

http://www.edd.ca.gov/uibdg/Total_and_Partial_Unemployment_TPU_4154.htm

This says he is an employee, well, so I am going back on what I said. I thought they were all independent contractors. The Rockets drafted a mess.

 

One thing that was odd about the interview -- he made it very, very clear that his travel issues are in no way related to his mental illness. He just doesn't like to fly.