In class today, we watched a video about Royce White, a basketball star from Iowa State who was recruited to play for the Houston Rockets. However, he has severe anxiety, which he handled by posing many demands for the Rockets, such as having his own personal doctor instead of the team doctor. Although it makes sense why he would do this, to have a medical opinion that is not influenced by team's interests, it seems selfish of him to demand so much from the team and not play a single game, when it seems as though he has made no effort to try and overcome his disorder. White seems to see himself as more important than the team's interests; for example, he could go to therapy or take medication to help himself and thus aid the team. While in the video White compared his disorder to a player having a physical injury, a person with such an injury would work to get better and heal, such as by taking medication or resting. As far as I know, White has done nothing like that to overcome the problem, instead he tries to get others to accommodate him unconditionally without putting in any work himself.
Thoughts? Do you think White's attitude towards the team and his disability is fair? Unfair?
I think that White should be getting more medical attention than his teammates because he does have a condition that he needs help with. Similarly to the hypothetical knee injury that White mentioned, a person who injured his knee would get specialized care if he was having issues with his knee, so White should get specialized care for his anxiety. However, I do not think it was fair for him to write out a list of demands for his team to follow. He should have been more responsible about the way he went about asking for specialized care. It would have been much more fair if he had had a talk with the coach explaining his fears and the extra help he requested, but also agreeing to attempt to get over his anxiety by talking to a psychologist or taking medication. In addition, White should have made an attempt to get to know his coaching staff and team better, so he would be comfortable with them just like he had been for his college team.
ReplyDeleteI agree. He did not seem to think he had any room to grow, when he possibly had the most room to grow. He should have looked for more care for his anxiety. He was being unfair to his team who didn't really understand his problem, other than the list of demands he gave them. I think that if he had talked to them face to face or one on one he could have really explained to them how he felt and what he needed. I think Royce White was selfish, but ultimately he was the one who paid for it. His team, although set back by his little conflict, did not suffer as much as Royce did. He got what he deserved, if he was not willing to change than he did not deserve to be in the NBA.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you, White needs to put the effort in trying to know his coaches and teammates to overcome his anxiety. However what if he was given those privileges and he turned out to be the best player on the team. Would that justify his demands? Is it possible for the the owner of the team and the coaches to say "Good thing we let Royce get his way, he is making our team better".
ReplyDeleteI agree with White when he says that there is not difference between a physical injury and a mental disorder. I think both do need rest and treatment in order to get better.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that White is not taking care of the situation well to try to improve the situation, from the video he did not mention any sort of treatment, therapy, or medication he has been using to try and make his illness at least more manageable. I absolutely agree with you when you say he isn't putting the work in to help himself. But instead he is just compromising with those around him to hopefully accommodate for his so called requirements.
I think that White needs to understand that with his disorder, limitations follow. This is true for physical situations as well, for example, a person who injures their knee permanently cannot continue to play without forgoing their health. Same thing applies to White. I think it comes down to how badly he wants to play- by playing, he will be doing something that his disorder is trying to prevent, and he needs to see that and accept the consequences or discomfort that follow.
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