The St. John’s Edge won’t have to worry about having to contain Royce White in their National Basketball League of Canada playoff series after the league suspended White for 11 games Friday, a decision the London Lightning star described as, “erratically egregious.”
In the six short days he’s been in town for Games 3, 4 and 5 of the Central Division final, White has quickly become a polarizing figure.
It could be argued the loudest roars at Mile One through the three games have come when White approached the free throw line.
It started last Saturday night, in Game 3 of the series which London won 101-86, when a number of fans accused this season’s league scoring leader of having used foul language, and launching homophobic slurs at people seated near the London bench.
White, in turn, later issued a statement denying the allegations, saying fans had harassed him about mental issues — he has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
NBL Canada deputy commissioner Audley Stephenson called it a, “he said, she said” situation, and as a result, the league did not hand out any discipline.
On Thursday night, a 130-127 London win, putting the Lightning ahead 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, White was drawing all sorts of attention again, and not just from the Edge defence, which was trying to contain the 27-year-old Minnesotan.
After fouling out with about four minutes to go in regulation time, White engaged in a one-sided, finger-pointing diatribe with Stephenson behind the Lightning bench, no doubt providing additional entertainment for some of the 4,496 who were within earshot.
According to the London Free Press, it was not White’s first clash with Stephenson. In a game at London’s Budweiser Gardens last month, White walked across the floor and had words with Stephenson.
One of the games White received in his suspension came as a result of a technical foul he picked up Thursday. As for the others, “the suspension is for conduct detrimental to the league in relation to his interaction,” Stephenson told the Free Press. “It was his interaction with myself.”
It’s the fifth time White’s been suspended this year, and means he’s done for the remainder of the NBL Canada playoffs.
White could appeal, but when contacted by The Telegram late Friday night, the 6-8, 270-pound power forward – who finished Thursday’s game, perhaps his final one in a London jersey, with 37 points, nine assists and four rebounds – said that decision will be left to Lightning owner Vito Frijia, who also happens to be the NBL Canada’s president.
White let it be known to The Telegram if it was up to him, he would not be dealing with Stephenson.
“I do not recognize the authority of Audley,” said White, the 16th overall pick by the NBA’s Houston Rockets back in 2012. “I adhere to a code that I take very seriously, and for me to appeal would be to acknowledge the authority that I do not recognize.”
White said what set him off was seeing the deputy commissioner, in his words, taking photos, “and smiling” at fans who were seated near the London bench and holding signs poking fun at White.
One fan was also wearing a black, Lone Ranger-type face mask, much like the protective mask White dons on court.
“There are a couple of guys with signs and Audley’s snapping pictures and smiling,” White says. “This is what happens when you put a guy who was nothing but a social media person in charge. This is the result when you give an individual a certain degree of authority when all he’s used to is walking around as a cameraman.
“He’s ‘The Audman’, right,” White said, referring to Stephenson’s Twitter moniker. “But that speaks more to the owners who put this dude in charge.”
White, who was an All-American at Iowa State before he was drafted by the Rockets – he never did play in Houston, though he did appear in three games with the Sacramento Kings in 2014 – said he wasn’t shocked he received a heavy 11-game suspension from the league.
“Not at all. The league has previously exhibited its lack of ability to objectively follow any rules,” he said.
White is unsure what the future entails. There are reports there could be an NBA tryout in his future, but that’s far from guaranteed.
And White, who didn’t exactly win over the Rockets – he was a no-show at his first training camp - and who battled with the NBA over how it addressed mental health issues, doesn’t sound like he’s banking on an NBA tryout.
“I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with the NBA,” he said. “It’s a cross I elected to pick up and bear, and I bear a tremendous amount of commitment to that.”
