Royce White

A year ago today, I watched a basketball game between the NBA D-League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers and Maine Red Claws in the tiny town of Hidalgo, Texas right on the Mexican border. That game was part of a four game in five nights NBA and NBDL vacation which proved to be one of the more enjoyable trips I have taken in the last few years. Of all the basketball I watched that week, I was most excited about the game in Hidalgo for a number of reasons. One of the more intriguing was that I would get to see Royce White play his first professional game in person. As it turned out I also got to chat with him for a few minutes while he tied his shoes.

Royce White was 16th overall pick of the Houston Rockets in the 2012 NBA Draft, a 6'-8" 260 pound forward who led his college team, the Iowa State Cyclones, in points, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks per game in his one year there after transferring from the University of Minnesota. Royce also has general anxiety disorder, a condition which requires him to live his life in a very controlled, predictable fashion to avoid situations of high stress which typically cause him to shut down. A fear of flying, which many people have latched onto as Royce's only issue, is one of the high stress situations that Royce needs to carefully control. Flying is definitely something that is part of the job description as a member of an NBA team with a frequent and national travel schedule.

Royce's general anxiety disorder and the accommodations he sought to deal with that condition had caused contract negotiations with the Houston Rockets to be long and complicated. Central to satisfactory resolution of a contract with the Rockets was Royce having a qualified medical professional who would be able to evaluate his suitability to play on any day based on his mental condition that day. This type of contract condition is not something NBA teams historically have had to include in rookie deals and I thought (as did Royce, I believe) that his negotiation would serve as a watershed moment that might change how mental illness in professional sports is approached. After all, Royce can't be the only athlete dealing with mental health issues, right?

By the time I got to Hidalgo, Royce's story had been publicized well enough to land him in stories on ESPN's Outside The Lines and HBO's Real Sports. Unfortunately, his battle with the Rockets had also caused him to miss most of training camp while playing exactly zero regular season minutes for the Rockets. Along the way after contract negotiations were completed, there had been a refused assignment to the Vipers, a subsequent suspension and finally a reconciliation which caused him to be on the court for the first time last February 12. Not exactly the way to start your NBA career but likely worth it if it all worked out in the end, especially if it raised awareness of mental health issues in professional team sports and led to meaningful change. In my pre-game chat with Royce, I offered my support and told him not to give up.

The game Royce played for Rio Grande last February 12 was the first of 12 he would play before leaving the team on what he said was the advice of the Rockets' team physician. The Rockets, however, didn't agree with Royce and asked him to report back to the Vipers for an additional four games before he ended his season shy of the playoffs and eventual Vipers' championship. In July of last year, Royce was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for essentially nothing. The Rockets actually sent cash to the Sixers to pay Royce's salary. After spending training camp and part of the preseason with Philadelphia, the team ultimately decided to part ways with Royce. He's currently not employed by an NBA team, although he's still taking home his slightly more than $1.7 million guaranteed with his rookie deal.

I can't imagine how difficult it is to live with any sort of anxiety disorder and I certainly can't begin to put myself in Royce White's situation. In addition to living with a condition that might shut his body down in the wrong environment, Royce is subjected daily to all sorts of disgraceful and hateful tweets from total strangers that appear to be making no effort to understand what it is he is dealing with. I know this because Royce replies to many of these on Twitter. Some of these messages like the one above which is pretty tame shake my faith in human nature.

But if Royce wanted to advance a cause to make the future better for guys with mental illnesses that come after him in the NBA, his lack of a job in that league is surely damaging his visibility enormously and I can't help thinking that Royce is in this situation partially of his own doing. His departure from the Vipers last year was clearly alarming to the Rockets and I have read reports that they found out about him leaving Hidalgo from Royce's Twitter account, a forum he has used relentlessly to embarrass and criticize the Rockets. He always had them on the defensive and for their part they refused to engage in a war of Tweets. It's easy for me to see that this type of behavior would be off putting to a potential employer.

When I first started following Royce White, I saw his message and his cause as important and I thought he did too. I don't believe he's done fighting but I believe he is done with professional basketball, which makes him eminently less important to the media and admittedly to NBA fans like me. He doesn't appear to be making efforts to re-enter the D-League and he recently gave what he called his last sports interview. My opinion is if he were willing to compromise a little more, he'd still be in the NBA fighting his fight in the spotlight of networks like ESPN and HBO; they are not so likely to give him any attention any more.

The Houston Rockets' General Manager, Daryl Morey, recently called Royce White the worst NBA first round pick ever. That seems a little harsh to me. Morey had to know selecting Royce carried great upside as well as great risk and I honestly don't believe he would have done that had he not had three first round picks in that draft. Having said that, I believe Royce is currently the only first round NBA pick who has signed a contract and not played a single minute in the regular season other than Nerlens Noel, who has been deliberately kept out of game action by the Philadelphia 76ers after last year's draft. I just think when I look back at what has happened between June of 2012 and now, Royce White seems to me to have missed an opportunity.

My Twitter account is dedicated to my love of the NBA and I'm unfortunately no longer following Royce White. No relevance to the NBA equals no following. I wish him all the luck in the world and I hope that one day he proves me as a doubter and comes back and plays in the NBA and makes a difference beyond that sport for future athletes.

Sitting Courtside In Hidalgo

Of all the places I am visiting on my basketball tour of Texas, I was looking forward to going to Hidalgo most of all. Seriously. It's a tiny town literally on the Mexican border. How can it get better than this? I have always had semi romantic notions of staying in small town America on vacations but never do it because quite honestly there's no reason for me to stay in small towns. I'm a city guy, what can I say? But Hidalgo has an NBDL team and that gives me a reason to stay for one night at least. Tuesday night their team, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, were hosting the Maine Red Claws (best name and logo in the NBDL, hands down). So Tuesday afternoon, I moved in to Hidalgo's Super 8, which is literally across the driveway from the arena, at a cost of about $50 and took in some hoops that night.

The Hidalgo area was first settled by the Spanish in 1749, meaning this area was inhabited well before the Republic of Texas was created. The town itself went through a series of names before finally settling on Hidalgo in 1885. Today the town has all of 11,000 or so residents. I suppose it's sort of a suburb of McAllen (population 123,000) and Brownsville (population 178,000) but suffice it to say there's more nothing than something around Hidalgo, mostly fields for crops or cattle. For perspective for those of you reading in northern Virginia, the population of Arlington is about 190,000.

The town sits right on the Rio Grande in the Rio Grande Valley, which is one of the richest ecosystems in the southwest United States. The sizeable Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, which contains 400 species of birds and over 250 species of butterflies is nearby and serves as a significant tourist attraction in the area. In the town of Hidalgo itself, there's not a whole lot to see. The most exciting attractions in town are the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse and a staue of a giant killer bee. Apparently the killer bee was first discovered in the United States in Hidalgo. Good times!

Following the Texas Legends before them, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers were an expansion team, joining the NBDL for the 2007-2008 season. They have spent their entire six year history playing in the Rio Grande valley. In their third season, they managed to win the D-League finals and were the runner up the following season so the team has experienced some pretty good success in a short period of time. For perspective, they have as many championships as my Washington Wizards in about one tenth the time. Apples to oranges comparison, I know.

The Vipers play at the State Farm Arena which, according to the venue's website, seats between 5,500 and 6,800 for basketball. That's a little more than the Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco holds but still way less than the 20,000 or so at Verizon Center. The State Farm Arena website lists the hockey and concert capacity but not the basketball capacity, like basketball doesn't matter or something. The hockey capacity is 5,500. I'm assuming the building holds slightly more for hoops since folks, including me, sit on top of the ice.

Just as I did in Frisco two nights earlier, I paid far less than the price of an NBA game for my Vipers ticket. My center court, second row seat in Hidalgo cost me $50, which is the most pricey D-League ticket I bought on this trip. That price compares to between $850 and $1,250 at Wizards home game at Verizon Center. This game is four to six percent of that price. Beers at the State Farm Arena are $5.75 for 16 oz. of Budweiser (cans only) so only 10 percent cheaper. Funny how the price of beer doesn't change much from the NBA to the minor leagues.

When I got to the game, I actually had a rude surprise waiting for me. The second row ticket that I bought on Ticketmaster had been sold to a season ticket holder since I bought the ticket and therefore wouldn't be honored. Instead of my second row seat, they moved me courtside on the Vipers bench side of the court. OK by me. Definitely the first time I have sat courtside anywhere and it definitely made the game more exciting, although I had to get used to players and coaches walking in front of me during the game. The game itself was a no defense affair, a 139-122 victory for the Vipers. Former Wizard Shelvin Mack plays for the Red Claws so it was good to see Shelvin play again even though he didn't have the best game of his D-League career.

But the main excitement for me in this game was the chance to get to see Royce White once again play basketball. I became intrigued with Royce last year during the NCAA tournament and have followed his saga since, a story which hopefully gets way better starting with Tuesday's game. Royce White was the 16th selection in the 2012 NBA Draft. He was selected as the second of three first round draft picks held by the Houston Rockets this past year. But to date, Royce has not played a minute of NBA basketball for the Rockets for various reasons including depth at his position, sitting out and being suspended by the team. The majority of his non-playing time has been caused by a dispute he has been engaged in with the Rockets about his mental fitness and how that affects his ability to play basketball safely. Royce suffers from general anxiety disorder which affects, among other things, his ability to travel, especially by airplane, which a number of people in the press and public have falsely latched on to as his only source of anxiety.

His dispute with the Rockets, which has been featured on ESPN's Outside The Lines and HBO's Real Sports, centered on his contention that he needs an independent qualified medical professional to have the final say on his ability to play basketball on any given day. He wrestled with this issue during his collegiate career at the University of Minnesota, where he was not entirely successful, and Iowa State University, where he played a full season and led the Cyclones in his one and only season last year in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game. He is clearly a talented basketball player, a fact driven home to me this past summer in Las Vegas where he dominated the paint against the Wizards in a game I attended during summer league play. Anyway his saga with the Rockets led to suspension without pay by the team on January 6 and an eventual resolution to the situation on January 23 with an agreement for Royce to report to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on February 11, which happened to be Monday.

Sitting courtside allowed me the chance to talk to Royce before the game and let him know how much I supported him and how I hoped he didn't become this generation's Curt Flood (look it up) breaking ground for generations of players but getting blackballed in the process. Royce allowed that he could be blackballed for making his own stand but said he'd be OK financially which was my main concern. Royce is a smart guy and that comes across in interviews and conversations. He also noted that he feels lucky just to be playing the NBDL, advocating that most of the guys at this level are just as good as they are in the NBA. He's lying here and it's false modesty. Royce is better than the D-League and he's not going to be here too long in my opinion. His game was a little rusty but how good he can be showed in his passing. His second assist of the night was just gorgeous.

It took Royce forever to tie his shoes. Not surprisingly. He also wore his socks inside out. I wish I'd noticed that when I was talking to him. I'd love to know what that is about.

For some reason, I love water towers.