Karalis: In an instant, Derrick White was there again when Boston needed a big defensive play

The ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea was known for his paradoxes. Among them was an argument that motion could not exist. 

An arrow fired from a bow, it was said, was standing still at any given instant. Take any single fraction of time in the arrow’s flight (or alleged flight, I suppose) and that arrow is just sitting there, motionless, like a photograph … if those existed at the time. 

How could there be motion if the arrow was completely still in every instance of its being? If every instance of it was motionless, how could motion be possible? 

We know, of course, that motion is. And even in the fifth century BC, those Greeks knew it as well as this Greek does today. Whatever the thought experiment Zeno might have presented to challenge conventional thought, everyone knows the arrow began in one place and ended in another. 

The instant, though, can still be powerful in and of itself. Motion can tell us one story while the instant can enhance it. We saw that in Detroit on Saturday night.

With less than a minute to play and the Celtics having reclaimed a two-point lead against Detroit, Derrick White went into motion to make a game-saving defensive play. 

Cade Cunningham broke free from Jrue Holiday. Jalen Duren hit him with a perfect pass for what looked like a game-tying dunk. But in an instant, White was there for a crucial blocked shot. 

There is rarely wasted motion from White. He knows where to be and when. He tends to strike quickly and seemingly by surprise, which makes instants important to capturing what he has done. The instant of this play is the most compelling.

(David Reginek-Imagn Images)

It’s hard to imagine a more perfect snapshot. There isn’t a hint of motion blur, giving us a pure thousandth of a second frozen in time. It could be unveiled with a slowly-raised velvet curtain while Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus plays. It could be crafted by a glazier into a fine stained glass for installation in the Church of William Fenton Russell. 

It is, without doubt, a purely perfect basketball photograph, and it is such because White made a purely perfect basketball play. 

It was his third of three blocks against the Pistons, two of which came in the final 6:10 of the game. The Celtics had been demolished in the paint all game long, but once again it was White who became the paint’s most ferocious defender when it mattered most. He has been the Frank Farmer to their Rachel Marron over and over, be it in October in Detroit, May in Miami, or June in Boston. 

I don’t know what Zeno would have thought if he had a Canon EOS 1DX Mark II at his disposal. He might have thought it proved his point because this moment is so clearly frozen in time. But oddly this instant seems to move even within its stillness. It almost feels like he’s moving to block that shot.

White’s impact on the Celtics comes in those flashes. He tends to appear out of nowhere; an apparition worthy of late October playing for a team a podcast-listen away from Salem. If this were 1692, he might have been burned at the stake for his defensive sorcery. 

In 2024, though, White is celebrated as a savior. Time and time again, whenever the Celtics fall into their ruts or fits of individuality, White tends to be the one who shows up when things look their worst. 

He is Han Solo blasting a tie fighter so Luke Skywalker … in this case, Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown … can fire the shots that blow up the Death Star. He does the big thing so someone else can do the bigger thing and get the bulk of the credit.

White’s eyes stand out in that photo. Wide and focused, he is looking directly at the result of his instincts. This instant provides no measurement of the power of his play, but we can infer from it that there is force involved. There is no give in White but there is in Cunningham, with his off hand somehow involved to give him needed balance. White feels like the stronger of the two. When aliens land on Earth, we can show them this photo and ask who is strongest and they will likely say Derrick White. 

Three games into the season, White is doing everything all over again. The Celtics might not be focused on repeating but White seems to already be repeating the winning formula for the Celtics.

Whatever the instant is, White will likely be a part of it. The season is always in constant motion, moving from one game to the next, but when the Celtics need a big play in a big moment, it always feels like White will be there to make it.