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If not for San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, there might not be a Derrick White — at least not the one Boston Celtics fans have grown to love.
“He just kept pushing me,” White told reporters after scoring 17 points in 134-101 victory over the Spurs on Sunday, December 31. “He saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. In the first year, I was in the G-League, which allowed me to figure out the NBA game. From there, he continued to push me and just add that confidence.
“I used to be in the meal room, and he’d walk in and just say, ‘You belong’ and walk out,” White said. “That’s cool to hear from the greatest coach of all time.”
White, 29, is in the midst of his best season, starting all 30 of the Celtics games and logging career highs in minutes (32.4), points (17.0) and assists (5.3).
After the game, Popovich painted a picture of how White was as a not-so-hyped rookie in 2017.
Popovich Helped White Believe in Himself
Popovich was blunt about what he saw in White as a rookie.
“I couldn’t be more proud of a player,” Popovich said. “When he first came, I don’t think he believed he belonged in the NBA. To watch him develop through the years, starting with the G-League, playing for us, and then starting for us, and then taking more steps in Boston has just been a thrill to watch.
The Spurs dealt White to the Celtics at the trade deadline in 2022 in exchange for Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford and a 2022 first-round pick. A little over a year later, White became a hero in Boston, winning Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat with what CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn called the “biggest putback in Celtics history.”
“He’s one of the greatest guys ever. His confidence has just exploded,” Popovich said. “It’s been a process. He’s been in the league six or seven years, but he’s a great story in starting out at the bottom and believing in himself and doing the work necessary to get to where he is now. I’m just thrilled for him.”
Derrick White Played for Gregg Popovich for 5 Seasons
Although White was the 29th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft by the Spurs, he wasn’t considered a player who would jump right into the NBA and make an immediate impact.
In fact, making a career out of playing basketball was never really on White’s radar.
“I was tiny all throughout high school,” White once told J.J. Redick during a 2022 episode on Redick’s “Old Man & the Three” podcast. “I think I was, like, 90 pounds my freshman year. I was small, just hoopin’ for fun.
“Really didn’t think much about it, but over the years, I grew a little bit. My senior year, I was like six feet and like 150. Nobody was interested in a six-foot, 150 kid from Parker, Colorado. So, I was just hoopin’ and just trying to get some D-II’s because there’s a lot of D-II’s in Colorado, and just nobody was talking to me.”
White played one year of Division I college basketball at Colorado, where he averaged averaged 18.1 points, 4.4 assists and 4.1 rebounds. Popovich and the Spurs took a chance on White in the first round of the 2017 draft.
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