The return of Royce

Royce White, the former Mr. Basketball in Minnesota whose struggles with mental illness have kept him from playing for the only NBA team willing to take a chance on him, may be returning to the game.

White suffers from anxiety disorder and left the Houston Rockets last fall after it assigned him to its developmental league team. Since then, he’s been holed up on Twitter.

“Any hour now, this whole thing will be over and I am supposed to return to the D-League Feb. 11th.,” he told Houston radio station 97.9.

“Everybody wants to make it seem like wild, wild west standoff between me and the Rockets,” he said. “That’s not the case here. There has been an issue that’s been identified. Mental health is not descriptive enough in CBA (collective bargaining agreement) and UPC (uniform player contract.) It being so vague makes us make it up as we go. There’s no protocol. We need to rectify that to make sure the environment is safe. If we’re making it up as we go, … that’s probably not the safest thing.”

You can listen to the interview here.