Royce White

And I probably could have made hundreds of millions of dollars, but it was on principle that the NBA is a watering hole for a global corporate community.

And they really are.

And that their neglect of having any mental health conversation, you know, language whatsoever in their collective bargaining agreement was a sign that they just didn't really give a shit.

You can talk NBA cares and all of this fancy propaganda, but they are a great example of the rest of the media establishment that talks about caring for people, but then they got Pfizer selling products that they know aren't safe, and they all close their mouth and turn a blind eye for their own benefit and profit.

So I had to take a stand there, and I ended up essentially getting blackballed for that.

to the point where I didn't even get invited to training camp.

And it wasn't because I can't be at training.

I mean, every year there are still guys who are like 37 who are invited to training camp just to be at training camp.

Cause they need extra bodies at training camp, let alone a 22 year old who was a top five talent.

And, and,

very versatile and had a game that was perfect for where the game was progressing.

You know, you talk about positionless basketball.

You know, my game was was that before it was really popular.

So I was I was essentially blackballed and I was told I was going to be blackballed.

Like I was sat in the back room with the powers that be and told, hey, listen, you know, you want you think mental health is important.

We agree.

and you could be the spokesperson for mental health you could be anything you want to be you could be as big as you want to be we could help you but you got to play first and if you don't play who's going to listen well you don't you don't tell you don't tell a young black man who comes from a working-class blue-collar community uh you know if you don't sell out then then what good are you going to be to humanity because i just took that as a challenge and it's like okay

I told David Stern, the late David Stern, and he did a lot for the game, but I told him I'm going to outlive you.

And I did outlive him.

And now he was 70 plus years old and I was 20.