Jim Souhan column: Royce White fearlessly forges a new path
He signed with the Gophers. With them, he was arrested for shoplifting and fifth-degree assault after an altercation with a security guard at the Mall of America. The university police named him a person of interest in the theft of a laptop. White recorded a YouTube video saying he was quitting basketball, and eventually transferred to Iowa State.
"I obviously was involved in the incident at the mall where we were shoplifting," he said. "It was stupid stuff, a bet. If you were watching a movie you would probably laugh at it. That doesn't mean it was OK, doesn't justify it, I don't believe in crime, but it was just petty.
"As far as what happened with the laptop, you're talking about something I had nothing to do with."
White said that at Minnesota, he had an entourage of friends from his neighborhood.
"I would never forsake them," he said. "A lot of it was believing that them being around me was safer than spending time where they came from. I've had a lot of black friends die. Killed. Shot. That was the reality of where they live. The message I kept hearing was, 'Don't blow your opportunity because of these people.' It was almost as if, because I had a scholarship, my life meant more than theirs. I didn't stand for that then, and I don't stand for it now."
White lauded Gophers coach Tubby Smith and his son Saul, an assistant coach, saying: "Tubby Smith is a great coach. I love him to death to this day, and his wife is incredible. Saul and all the coaches were incredible. They did what they needed to do for themselves. I understand how Coach Smith couldn't risk his job for me, nor could the athletic director or president. But the reality is that a lot of things that happened there weren't right."
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Go Gophers!!