Daryl Morey hopeful issues with Royce White will be resolved soon – NBA News
The Houston Rockets made an interesting draft pick this past summer when they picked Royce White with their 16th overall pick. White is a great talent, a top five pick in the NBA Draft this year, who has shown his abilities
in college basketball. However, the reason White was not picked earlier in the draft was that White suffers from anxiety disorder, something that makes it difficult to face an audience and travel by airplanes sometimes. Every NBA team knew of his condition
and the risk involved with picking him, but the Rockets picked him because they thought his issues were manageable and he was too good a talent to let go.
Now a month into the NBA season, White is yet to start for the Rockets as he is currently trying to sort out his differences with the team management about how they are ensuring his health and attempting to come to a compromise
that would allow him to play for the Rockets without risking his health, particularly his disorder. Hence, the Rockets are yet to bear the fruit of their decision to acquire White, and the risk of selecting him seem to increase with every day. However, Rockets
General Manager Daryl Morey is still confident that the team will be able to sort out their issues with White, and he will be able to contribute to the success of the team. Morey was recently on a Podcast run by the people at Slate, and had some interesting
things to say about the situation with White.
“Basketball is sort of an interesting sport that, you know, the top player on your team makes so much more of an impact than the top player in any other sport. We think Royce is an elite talent—top five talent in this last draft,
which was very deep. Obviously if we’re getting him at 16 in the draft, there’s going to be something wrong. Royce was someone who played every game at Iowa State, played it well. So even with his issues, he showed that he is very functional. We’re trying
to work things through with Royce, and hopeful that we can,” said Morey.
White is only in his rookie year with the Rockets and what matters most is how he plays two or three years into the season as the Rockets look to rebuild and can he become a real asset for the team. With him, it was always a risk
but that is the kind of risks that teams have to take in the NBA of today if they want to remain in competition.
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