Derrick White is the perfect Team USA player and this should be the next step
By Jack Simone
The 1992 Dream Team was defined by Michael Jordan. By Magic Johnson. By Larry Bird. Those are the names and faces remembered, just as LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant will be the ones remembered from this year’s team. But the Boston Celtics are just as synonymous with this group.
Boston makes up one-fourth of the entire roster. Jrue Holiday got the start in Team USA’s opener vs. Serbia, and against South Sudan, Jayson Tatum got the nod after playing zero minutes in the previous contest. Yet neither has been the true story of the Olympics for the reigning NBA Champions.
That’s been Derrick White.
Celtics guard Derrick White is the perfect Team USA player
A last-minute addition to the roster, White has done nothing but impact winning since joining the team. On a squad full of future Hall-of-Famers and legends, he’s the only player without an All-Star appearance, but you wouldn’t know it.
“He’s done that the whole year,” Jrue Holiday said of White after Team USA’s win over Serbia. “Last one here, but it feels like he fit in, like usual. The way that he plays is amazing.”
Through two games, White has played 16.4 minutes per contest. He’s averaging 6.0 points, 1.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 2.5 steals, and 1.0 blocks while shooting an unconscious 80.0% from the floor and 75.0% from distance.
White’s seamless abilities as a connector on offense are somehow outshined by his lights-out defense. The best shot-blocking guard in the NBA has translated that skill to Olympic basketball, and ball-handlers on the perimeter are put in a torture chamber whenever he’s manning them up.
"Derrick, he has been booming, doing everything that he does, him being a plug and replace guy, you can put him in any system, and he will know what to do," Tatum said after their win over South Sudan.
As James, Durant, and newly minted sharpshooter Bam Adebayo led the way on Wednesday, White simply played his role. He finished as a +18 in Team USA’s 103-86 victory.
In the shadows of some all-time greats, White is the perfect Team USA player. But why is that the case?