Royce issues new statement
- Thread starter Trice
- Start date
Royce just tweeted he is going to travel by bus when he can, on his own dime.
This comes down to making a reasonable accommodation for someone with a health condition. Similar to say having a desk that could fit a person in a wheelchair put in an office that may have lacked one. As long as it does not put the Company at financial risk it is covered under the American Disabilities Act. I am sure some are against it, but it's to help people that could be discriminated against have employment. This is the 21st century, not the 18th and our view of people should be a little more enlightened. In the not too distant pass they would have taken someone with panic attacks to get an exorcism.
As many are saying, you think it is not Houston's problem and they should do nothing. This is a red flag and means he will not be successful. I disagree. I think Royce is a very talented Basketball player and will be an asset on the court. John Madden took buses around the country for years, and although seen as strange I don't think anyone questioned his ability to do games because of his fear of flying, for other reasons yes, but not for the fear of flying.
Royce is fighting prejudice against people with mental health disorders. Brandon Marshal is doing the same thing here in Chicago. This takes a lot of courage. If you are into Ayn Rand and Social Darwinism maybe you think they should be left to struggle and fade into their illness or condition, because that is how we weed people out or that they are somehow weaker than others. Or maybe you have a different view that people a have some innate worth and should be helped and assisted to achieve their goals.
Royce will be fine. Take this opportunity to consider your attitude towards him and other people. Would you have the courage to hire someone and help someone succeed even though they may be different than you? Or would you alienate and make fun of them and send them on their way? It's all about awareness.
Fight the good fight Royce.
This comes down to making a reasonable accommodation for someone with a health condition. Similar to say having a desk that could fit a person in a wheelchair put in an office that may have lacked one. As long as it does not put the Company at financial risk it is covered under the American Disabilities Act. I am sure some are against it, but it's to help people that could be discriminated against have employment. This is the 21st century, not the 18th and our view of people should be a little more enlightened. In the not too distant pass they would have taken someone with panic attacks to get an exorcism.
As many are saying, you think it is not Houston's problem and they should do nothing. This is a red flag and means he will not be successful. I disagree. I think Royce is a very talented Basketball player and will be an asset on the court. John Madden took buses around the country for years, and although seen as strange I don't think anyone questioned his ability to do games because of his fear of flying, for other reasons yes, but not for the fear of flying.
Royce is fighting prejudice against people with mental health disorders. Brandon Marshal is doing the same thing here in Chicago. This takes a lot of courage. If you are into Ayn Rand and Social Darwinism maybe you think they should be left to struggle and fade into their illness or condition, because that is how we weed people out or that they are somehow weaker than others. Or maybe you have a different view that people a have some innate worth and should be helped and assisted to achieve their goals.
Royce will be fine. Take this opportunity to consider your attitude towards him and other people. Would you have the courage to hire someone and help someone succeed even though they may be different than you? Or would you alienate and make fun of them and send them on their way? It's all about awareness.
Fight the good fight Royce.
Agree as well. I commend him for being a voice for mental health, but this was so public before the draft and this is "hater fuel." It also does set up a unique situation for a variety of "special" situations other teams may need to address. I think there are certain parts of the job that are not negotiated, meaning, what if the coach utilizes the plane ride to watch film, debrief the game, prep for a game, etc? One would say the plane ride is part of the job. AND, I also think this should have been hashed out as the first contract was signed. Pre-draft everyone was saying "he flew in college" (including Royce) and now to pull this does kind of create a future flaw (unknown...can we trust his word, etc).
Again, I respect Royce immensely and as a person/player and have gotten to know him...but this should have been handled in June with contract talks behind closed doors.
I agree with parts of what you're saying, and disagree with other parts. I think the Rockets should help work around Royce's condition until it affects him doing what he's supposed to be doing as part of his job. If he has to miss games or practices or things that are very vital parts of his job, and they've tried to accommodate him, it stops being Houston's problem.
And that's assuming those games are either one off away games or the first game of a road trip. Taking a glance at the Rockets schedule there's only about 7 games that he could easily drive too, unless he's planning on trying to use the bus for stretches of road trips as well, say Milwaukee to Chicago.
I think discussions like this are why Royce handles it publicly. If it does affect his job performance, and hinders the organization than of course he will be unable to stay with the team. However, let's examine our attitudes about it. Are we getting a nervous feeling in the gut, because of his condition and feeling embarrassed we are his fan? Or do we support him and applaud Houston? What does it say about our attitude if we assume this will reflect bad on Royce or ISU? Or is it possible that this will reflect positively on Royce, Houston and ISU?
I know we all care about Royce and want him to succeed. Not an easy situation, but one that could help a lot kids with mental health issues stay in sports or school through awareness. Stay positive!
I certainly don't feel like this reflects poorly on ISU, and I'm not at all embarrassed to be his fan. I've had several friends and family members with mental illness, this isn't something new and embarrassing to me. I think it was wrong of him to call out the Rockets like this. There's literally nothing to gain in it, it doesn't really make people with anxiety look better - it makes them look high-maintenance. If he'd handled this quietly and just stood up for himself as an advocate without taking it public, it shows that people with anxiety are just like everyone else.
I hope I did not come off as accusatory, as I was asking myself the same questions I am asking everyone else to consider. IMO he had to go public due to being late to camp. Probably should have had this figured out earlier and could have been presented to the public via social media, documentary etc.
Honestly, or just let the Rockets handle it. They were keeping it fairly vague, so it could have been anything (family issues, anxiety, health stuff). I do think a documentary would be good, but he sort of needs to let the Rockets show what they plan to do with this. I think picking up the ball and running with it is good when it comes to your health, but you don't need to tell everyone you're doing it while you're running.
Yep. I felt the same way when he announced that he was leaving. Royce is a great talent, but at the NBA level he is unproven and expendable at this point. Teams will only go so far to make this work before they just cut ties and move on. This doesn't look good so far.
Agreed. I thought he traveled by plane to most of the ISU away games? I think the problem is that he promised teams that his disorder wouldn't be an issue for any team that drafted him and now it's become an issue for Houston before the season even started.
Ultimately, whether this hurts his NBA career will depend on how well he plays. If he becomes a good player, teams will bend over backwards to accomodate him. If he's just another guy, teams will look for guys with less baggage.
Surely he would have a chauffer (sp?). He could leave at night or whatever to get to where he's going. Let someone else drive and get some sleep. Also, with modern technology like skype, he could attend any meetings the team might have. But anything further than, say 12 hours, would probably require flight time.
Exactly. Look at Randy Moss, TO. Their baggage was of a different sort, but people stopped working around it when their game dropped. He's going to have to show how awesome he is to make this worthwhile for teams.
Since pros for regular and pre season have more than 90 games, there will be three to four times the travel than college. Maybe he can take his family on bus trips.
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He was a topic just now on around the horn.... Basically everyone said the rockets knew what they were getting into w a gamble on him and that this shouldn't be too expected
They all seemed sympathetic to his situation. They mentioned that it would be good for him if he played in around 60 games.
They're also going to talk about him on PTI.
This is the worst thing that could have happened. I really think royce's agent is steering royce way off path here. I would think this would cause even more anxiety than if he just went to work and tried to fit in like every other rookie or college graduate in a new job would have to do. This is horrible, horrible for royce's anxiety and his public image. I think he just comes off like an entitled little baby now, instead of the man that he is. He has the money to figure this out on his own, he shouldn't put it on his employer to fix it for him. He is just fitting the status quo of his generation of a bunch of entitled kids that need a visit to the real world.
