Royce White has yet to report to Houston’s training camp, citing the same fear of flying that influenced his decision to transfer from Minnesota to Iowa State (and turning down an opportunity to transfer to Kentucky). Houston’s Fox 26 reports White and the Rockets are in negotiations — pending approval from the Players Association — to allow the rookie forward to travel to some road games via bus, at his own expense.
“Let’s see if it helps to be able to bus when you can,” White said in an interview with FOX 26 Sports. “I think that was a great step taken by the Rockets to be able to meet me on this one, and it was a great step in terms of mental illness being taken seriously in the workplace. I just think it’s a very positive thing that happened all the way around.
“They’ve been stellar and what they pretty much are saying is that they don’t care how I get to the games as long as I get to the games.
“They knew when they drafted me there was a fear of flying. That is a very real aspect of my life. There’s no reason why it has to keep me from being successful on the court. There’s definitely no reason why it should be allowed to keep me from being healthy and I think that that’s the main point.”
“Me having a fear of flying and that being one of my anxieties, obviously going from the amount of flights I took at Iowa State and almost tripling that or quadrupling that, isn’t probably going to be healthy. We can predict that out into the future.”
“It’s going to be very innovative,” White said. “The plan is very unique and individual-based as is mental illness.