Picks n' Pops: Derrick White's extension, a new ABC broadcast crew, and spending Mega Millions winnings

Every week, I gather some thoughts on the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Except for next week, when I’ll be in a tropical location justifying drinking rum at 10 a.m. 

- Svi Mykhailiuk is reportedly choosing between Greece’s Panathinaikos or a minimum offer from the Celtics. Either way, he gets to join a team wearing green and white with a shamrock logo. 

I guess this answers my question of what the Celtics might do next in free agency. Rearranging the deck chairs to pry open the taxpayer MLE is clearly not in the works. They’d rather fill out the roster with Ukrainian Mike Muscala.

Or maybe Terence Davis.

- Danilo Gallinari has vowed his revenge on the Celtics for trading him. Yeah Gallo! Let the Celtics have it! How dare they honor your contract and pay you the full season, help you rehab the ACL you tore during international competition, and have you travel with the team so you can be part of the playoff run? 

- Al Horford is not playing for the Dominican Republic in the FIBA World Cup. Because he’s smart. 

- Congratulations to Derrick White, who finally got the message that bald is beautiful: 

As for White the player, who was recently officially named Boston’s starting point guard by Joe Mazzulla, he’s going to be eligible for an extension next month. He told Malika Andrews on The Jump “I love being here in Boston. It would be cool to get an extension. We’ll see what happens … but I’ve loved my time in Boston so far.”

White’s extension number will be interesting. The extension will be based on his final year salary, $19,571,429, in the 2024-25 season. Boston can give him up to 140% of that, which would be $27.4 million in the first year of a new deal. 

Will they go that high? Will that be too rich for them? I don’t know which stars will remain on the team when White gets to year one of a new deal, but he’s earned his money and then some. And while the number seems huge, it would probably only account for 17% of the cap in that first season, which is reasonable for a starting point guard with All-Defensive team capabilities. 

Stay tuned. 

- The Barbie Movie was good enough, but they were not subtle with the messaging. I agree with the points they were trying to make and even I felt bludgeoned by it. But maybe I’m not the person who needed to hear that message. 

- Grant Williams seems to be enjoying Dallas. 

Here’s the list of things NBA players love most: 

1: Money
2: Winning championships
3: Blocking the crap out of young children at various summer camps
4: Groupies

Put an NBA player in the middle of a group of kids and within 30 seconds, he’ll be running them over. 

- RIP Paul Reubens, who we all obviously remember as Pee Wee Herman. Imagine having that kind of impact on society? I wish Pee Wee came about today when Reubens could really explore the more subversive side of the character. 

- The NBA sent out a memo basically telling Damian Lillard and his agent to quit telling the world he’ll only play for Miami or else they’ll face discipline (and the same goes for the next guy who tells teams something similar). 

The NBA needed to rein this in. It’s one thing to have a short list of preferred teams, but poisoning the waters in an effort to only go to one team is too much. The NBA can’t have a player ruining a franchise by forcing them to take a crappy offer because there's no bidding war. 

I’m all for player agency, and the trade demand on its own is fine. He’s done in Portland, he wants out, and the Blazers are going to oblige. They're not going to send him to Houston or San Antonio because they are trying to do right by him to some degree. 

But telling them to take whatever Miami gives them because that's the only destination of choice basically slaps the franchise and their fans in the face. If you want to pick your team, get to free agency. 

At least the NBA got Lillard’s side to admit he’ll play wherever he lands. 

- If I win the Mega Millions jackpot, I’m buying you all a coffee. At today’s prices, that’ll be about half of what I take home. No cold brews.

- NBA owners can contribute to whichever political candidate they want, but the Orlando Magic contributing to a political campaign as a team crosses a line. You can’t scream at me to "stick to sports" and think what the Magic did is okay. 

- Get well soon Montrezl Harrell, who tore an ACL and meniscus during offseason workouts. He recently re-signed with Philadelphia, but he’s done for the season. At this point, I’m not sure how much of a career he has left in the NBA. 

- Alyssa Thomas is having a monster season for the Connecticut Sun. She put up a 21-point, 20 rebounds, 12-assist triple-double for her second back-to-back triple-double of the season. 

- Mark Jackson is out at ESPN. Mike Breen will now be joined by Doc Rivers and Doris Burke for ABC games. 

I found the analysis lacking with Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. Too often, games devolved into complaining sessions and nonsequiturs. I’m hoping Doc Rivers can add some recent coaching expertise to the broadcast to help explain why certain things are happening.

What I don’t want is for Doc to be a toned-down shell of himself because he’s angling for another coaching job. 

Either way, it was time for something new.