Royce White told ESPN's Colleen Dominguez a few days ago that he's ready to walk away from the NBA if he and the Rockets can't resolve their issues, and White tells Mark Berman of Fox 26 in Houston that his feelings about retiring under those circumstances are "totally etched in stone." Nonetheless, he believes he and the Rockets can hash out an agreement, and isn't considering a recent offer from the Harlem Globetrotters.
In Berman's report, White seemed to indicate he and the Rockets were working on additional contract language that would address his obsessive-compulsive and generalized anxiety disorders.
"The Rockets have been great in saying 'we understand that we don't know a lot here,'" White said. "The Rockets asked me 'what can we do better or how can we support you?' I've been writing some ideas based on what I know about mental illness and what I know about myself of trying to create a nice, sound protocol to add in there. I'm making great progress."
White, who insists the matter isn't one of "Royce versus the Rockets," said he isn't upset about not having played in any of Houston's regular season games so far. Still, he has misgivings about how an assignment to the D-League, which seemed to be in the works earlier this week, would mesh with his disorders.
The rookie, who has been away from the Rockets for more than a week, will meet with general manager Daryl Morey on Monday, but White isn't expecting immediate resolution. He believes he shouldn't have returned as quickly as he did from his absence at the start of training camp, saying the plan he and the team arranged to manage his disorders wasn't complete.
"I think we should have waited until the plan was solid and we had thought out the contingencies and we had made it as fail-proof as possible," White said.
According to White, he began to face adversity when he suffered migraines that forced him to miss the Rockets' game against the Blazers on November 3rd, and the problems continued when communication issues between him and the team surfaced, testing his OCD. White, who was being fined for every day he missed team activities or failed to meet with a therapist commissioned by the Rockets, said he is no longer being fined since he's been meeting with the therapist, Dr. Aaron Fink. White called upon the team to treat his illness as a medical issue, surmising that he wouldn't have been fined if his problems were regarded as such.