Inside Royce White's Transition From the NBA to MMA

White played just three NBA games despite being drafted No. 16 by the Rockets in the 2012 draft.

Royce White's brief NBA career didn't include a significant on-court impact. The Rockets' first-round pick in 2012 played just three career games in 2013-14, logging one career shot attempt and a pair of fouls. White's story is a puzzling one, but his statistical shortcomings don't paint the full picture. White's NBA impact has outlived a brief stint with Sacramento. 

White discussed his time in the NBA–and his transition to MMA fighting–with Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim on Monday. The Iowa State product detailed his struggles transitioning to the NBA, in which he claims his mental health concerns were not accommodated by the Rockets or the NBA.

"White says that when he arrived in Houston, the team was initially accommodating and engaged him in discussions about how to handle his anxiety," Wertheim wrote. "Then the tenor changed. ...White demanded he be able to travel by bus. If the team wouldn’t pay for it, he’d put down the money himself. Later, he asked the Rockets to hire a physician to monitor his mental health daily and determine whether he could be cleared to play."

White refused to an assignment to play for the Rockets G League team in Rio Grande Valley in November 2012, and was subsequently suspended. White returned to the Vipers and played 16 games in 2012-13, but he was then traded to Sacramento. A 10-day contract with the Kings was not renewed in March 2014, marking the end of White's NBA career. 

The 6'8" forward was ahead of his time as an advocate for mental health advocacy in the NBA. All-Stars Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan have opened up about their mental health struggles in recent years, and Love tweeted thanks to White in August 2018. White's candor regarding his mental health paved the way to a healthier future in the NBA, even if it didn't help his career.

White is now taking up a different sport nearly a decade after he was drafted. He is now training with "esteemed coach," Greg Nelson in at the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, the previous home of UFC and MMA star Brock Lesnar. After an NBA career cut short, perhaps White can make a new claim to fame in the UFC. 

“We’ll see what happens when he takes a big shot,” Nelson said. “That’s when you learn a lot about someone and you learn a lot about yourself.”