PERSON: Royce White

Former NBA Player

Royce White was born and raised in the Twin Cities. A native to the Rondo community of St. Paul. He started playing sports at the age of 5 years old. By age 9 he was playing basketball on the Northside of Minneapolis. As the son of a single mother, Royce has lived in various neighborhoods around the twin cities. Much of his family remained in the Rondo community, where he spent much of his time and received schooling. White excelled in basketball; by 10th grade he was ranked as a top 20 player for his class. He would go on to receive scholarship offers from many high major D-I universities for basketball, while also winning the Minnesota Mr. Basketball Award in 2009 and receiving All-American honors. Deciding to stay home and attend the University of Minnesota, White accepted a scholarship offer to play for the Golden Gophers. After an incident during his first summer on campus, White reluctantly decided to transfer to Iowa State.