Thursday, December 17, 2009

This Royce White Thing

Hey folks.  I promised a few sentences on this Royce White thing, so I suppose I shouldn't lie about things as if I was your mother when she said she loved you and actually get to it.  The real problem here is, though, I don't much care at this point.

Look, I definitely wanted White to be here.  There's no doubting his talent, and there's even less doubting that this team could really use a big-time banger type of power forward since all the other big guys (without Mbakwe) are perhaps a bit soft, except for Ralph (some people might say he's soft, I say he's playing coy).  But at this point in this season was anybody really still pining for him?  What were the odds he was even going to play this year?  10%?  5%?  It was made pretty clear that his legal troubles, valid or not, were piling up and anybody who thought he was going to play this year was holding on to a thin shred of hope like they were Chris Brander.  Sometimes it works out, but most of the time you're left standing there wearing your mall iron-on cat T-shirt while some jock reads your most heartfelt thoughts you wrote in Jamie's yearbook to the entire graduating class.

As far as Royce goes, all I can say is "Really?"  I mean really?  You've already skated through 18 years of life with little to no regard for the rules that most humans follow, and you've gotten away with it time and time again because the good lord blessed you with 6-7 size and super human athleticism.  Unfortunately, he also cursed you with that ten-cent head and you just couldn't get out of your own way. 

It's disappointing in a lot of ways.  Hell, I even defended him when he first got kicked out of De La Salle and ripped the crap out of Reusse for going after Tubby for keeping this guy on the team.  Now I feel like the idiot.  And it has nothing to do with the Mall of America pants incident or even this laptop framejob worthy of those dudes that framed Nixon.  It is because he quit.  He quit.

It might be different if I believed for a second that he quit because of "what the investigation was doing to his family."  But I don't.  Maybe I'm the asshole here, but it sounds to me like the whining of a privileged child who had his favorite toy taken away for being a bad boy, but instead of learning his lesson or owning up to his mistakes he blames the teacher and refuses to play red-rover anymore.  He had an incredible opportunity, and has now pissed it all away.

It wouldn't even have been that difficult.  Just play one season of college ball and enter the draft.  I could see him going anywhere from the mid-first to the late second with even a mediocre season based on his perceived potential.  But he couldn't even handle that and when a little adversity was thrown his way he quit.  A career in Europe may still be in the cards, but for my money I'd bet he still ends up playing at a JuCo or something on that level.  But the fact is I just don't care anymore.  I used too many words, too much breath, and far too many minutes of my life defending Royce, only to have him quit on everybody who defended and believed in him.

This is the last post you will see about Royce White on this site. (that probably isn't true but it sounds defiant - I'm like Elin Woods to Royce's Tiger over here.)  

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

quit? when did he start? This may have been a nudge out by Maturi/Tubby to move the program along. The kid unfortunately couldnt stay quiet long enough to get paid, not smart.

WWWWWW said...

"quit? when did he start?"

- good point.

Dawg said...

Congrats WWW, I'm proud of you for finally owning up to your moronic comments. Its ok, you were blinded by the bright shine of his 4 star status. He is possibly the biggest dipshit of all time. Everybody knows that you use all of your NBA money to jump start your music career. Look at T-Hud, they actually use to play his song at the Target Center during breaks.

Moving on, did you happen to watch Corey Joseph/Findlay Prep. on ESPN last night? His team lost to JJ Sulligner's little brother who had like 32 pts and 17 boards. This guy will be beating the crap out of soft little Ralphy for the next 2 years.

rghrbek said...

Dawg,

Agreed. That Sullingner kid will cause Ralphy to make a pee stain in his gopher shorts.

Any way you look at the Royce W thing, it's unfortunate. The kid is clearly messed up. Unfortunately, those of us, who thought we might have a chance at a Big Ten title in a few years, and a chance to make a decent run in the tourney, may have to wait longer than we thought.

The gophers still need that go to guy, and Lawrence W. will never be that for every game.

Anonymous said...

Who needs two go to guys when you already have Ralphy, right WWWW?

WWWWWW said...

I'm starting to sense an Anti-Ralph sentiment from the readers of this blog, and it makes me unhappy.

I might just have to shut down for good.

Rick from Duluth said...

I think Ralph needs to take some more jumpers, playing in the paint is for animals.

Anonymous said...

nicely said Down with Goldy web guy

Brady R. said...

Look who's leading the charge against Ralph. Dawger knows as much about college hoops as he does hall of fame shortstops. If a guy doesn't shoot 3's and slap his hands on the floor to get fired up for "D" Dawger thinks he sucks. Consider it a good thing Dawger thinks Ralph sucks. That most likely means an 8 to 10 year NBA career for Big Ralph.

Dawg said...

Brady Snake you got behind Ralph before you ever saw him play a minute because of who his dad was. I know this, because your other favorite basketball players are Jeff Jordan, Luke Walton and Ryan Saunders. Its time to face the fact that Ralph "Warm Butter" Sampson will be nothing more then a role player.

Brady R said...

Warm butter? Is that the nickname Ross gave gave him?