It's not every day that the activities of a bench warmer command one prominent article in the Chronicle, much less two, but such was the case in the Jan 24 Sports Section regarding Royce White and his battles with the Houston Rockets, specifically the endless drama over treatment for his Generalized Anxiety Disorder. This season, more has been written about White than all the rest of his teammates combined, and frankly, it's getting old. As this thing has played out, any fair-minded person would conclude that the Rockets have bent over backwards to accommodate White, yet his response time and again has been to accuse them of bad faith and threatening his health.
This is not to say that he doesn't have mental health issues. It is to say that just because he's got a problem, he's not excused from at least trying to do his job, and there's precious little evidence that he's tried at all. From my perspective, White expects to be waited on hand and foot, allowed to come and go as he pleases, hurl unwarranted insults at his employer and draw his $3 Million paycheck.
The shame of this whole ordeal is that White's behavior has trivialized a genuine mental health issue, and is an insult to folks with similar problems who don't consider themselves victims, don't spend all of their energies blaming somebody else, and bravely do the work necessary to make their lives better.
It's time for White to grow up.
Pete Smith
Cypress
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