Derrick White, back where it all started, basks in the progress that pushes his All-Star candidacy

With 4:31 to go in Boston’s win over San Antonio, a few Celtics fans … and maybe a Spurs fan or two … started a chant. 

“WHITE’S AN ALL STAR [clap, clap, clap clap clap]”

Derrick White, who is privately personable and affable around his teammates, publicly tried to shrink in the moment. He sat cross-armed, slumped in his seat while Jaylen Brown to his left, Al Horford and Sam Hauser to his left, and Jrue Holiday in street clothes behind him, clapped along to the chant. 

Kristaps Porzingis caught wind of it and started clapping along too. Then Oshae Brissett started waving people on to sheer louder. 

White, back where it all started for him in the NBA, soaked in the moment but downplayed it after the game. 

“I’m just thankful and grateful. I’m just trying to go out there and help us win,” he said. “I think if I was to make the All-Star game, it’s because of how much we’re winning and the type of team we have. So I’m just thankful to be part of this team and this organization and the culture that we’re building here. And me making it or not making it doesn’t change the fact that I’m just thankful to be here.” 

There's a lot of competition ahead of White when it comes to actually making the All-Star team. It will likely be up to the coaches, or Adam Silver assigning an injury replacement, to get White to Indiana. Whether he makes it or not, the road to this point was a long one, even though White didn’t have the same path to the NBA as most other guys in an All-Star conversation. That story is well-documented. When he was in high school, he wasn’t sure he’d be playing high-level basketball in college. It took a while for him to start making an impact, getting to Colorado, and playing well enough to get drafted by Gregg Popovich and the Spurs. 

“He just kept pushing me and just knew he saw something in me that I didn't see myself,” White said. “(He’d) push me and just add that confidence. I used to be in the mailroom. He'd walk in and just say ‘you belong’ and walk out. So just little things like that. It was just cool to hear from the greatest coach of all time.”

When you’ve been around basketball as long as Popovich has, special skills become easier to spot. When you’ve coached more than 2,400 NBA regular season and playoff games, not to mention 27 seasons worth of preseason games and international competition, one develops a Spidey Sense about players’ abilities. 

“He had a natural affinity and understanding of the game IQ-wise and I don't think he knew about himself,” Popovich said. “He's an innately good passer, for instance. And you can see it immediately, but he didn't even think of himself that way. He was too humble, I guess, to start out. And now he's figured it out.”

White was his usual very good self against his former team. He torched blitzes on pick-and-rolls with alley-oops to Luke Kornet. He buried open shots when they came his way, a very notable improvement from his time in Texas. He snuck backdoor for an easy basket, taking advantage of very poor, youthful defenders. And to top it off, he tomahawked a pass from Brown to effectively put an exclamation point on the win … albeit with 5:47 to go in the third quarter. 

But it wasn’t like some revenge game for him. Listed off in rapid succession like this, it seems like a monster game but he spread it out nicely in a supporting 17-point role while Brown and Jayson Tatum combined for 49. Honestly, there probably isn’t much revenge to be had. 

San Antonio did him a solid by sending him to a contending team in Boston, and the love for White from the Spurs organization is still very strong. They had to do what they had to do in order to properly tank. In a way, trading White away is as much a compliment as the chants were. 

‘Sorry, Derrick, you’re just too good for what we’re trying to accomplish right now.’

Popovich is trying to find his next Derrick White to pair with Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs will need a do-it-all kind of guy to complement the freak of nature Wembanyama is. Until he finds one, he’ll have to settle for watching White reach his full potential in Boston. 

“Settle” might be a strong word. 

“It has just been a thrill to watch,” Popovich said. “He's one of the greatest guys ever. And his confidence has just exploded. So it's been a process … he's a great story in starting out at the bottom, and believing in himself, and doing the work necessary to get where he is.”