How a SKINNY KID became an NBA Finals Star

from zero d1 offers out of high school to 21 points in his nba finals debut for the celtics this is the incredible story of derek white derek has always been too small his entire life this photo is of derek as a freshman in high school he weighed a hundred pounds that's the typical weight of a five foot tall man he made the basketball team because the school was brand new and they didn't have anyone else to play it's just true i'm sorry but by his senior year derek had a growth spurt to six feet tall and he led his team in scoring at 20 points a game the problem is nobody wanted him and i mean nobody his dad even looked through like every single college roster in the country for schools that had a guard who was about to graduate and the only team to respond was a coach at a cooking school seriously they graduated more famous chefs than basketball players his first big break though is when that cooking coach got a legit d2 job at colorado springs not a scholarship but derek got a spot on the roster after he was drafted by the spurs five years later i actually got a chance to ask derek why everybody doubted him how does a guy who's a first round pick not have any d1 offers coming out of high school how does that happen i was undersized so a lot of schools shied away from me told me i was too small a lot of d2 schools told me the same thing so uh it was definitely tough at that time but when i eventually grew it i started to make some more noise yeah and he actually grew to six foot four when he combined that size with his skill teams started to notice derek transferred to d1 colorado and he made so much noise this dunk made espn's top plays and in one season he averaged 18 points four sis and four boards look at the names he made first team all-conference with lonzo ball lori markenin markelle fultz kyle kuzma derek was ready for the nba but first i know a lot of people including me can get stressed out about saving and investing my money i've heard a lot of people 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amazing end that would be to his underdog journey but instead he stayed home so all the people who helped him get there could celebrate too the spurs made derek a first-round pick at 29th overall greg popovich called him and the entire party got to watch derek talk to his new hall of fame nba coach so surreal kid couldn't even dunk until his senior year in high school the celtics traded for him five years later but there's a really good reason we didn't hear much about derrick white before that 18 days after he was drafted tim duncan announced his retirement but no big deal he still had an elite roster lamarcus aldridge noble tony parker pal gasol kawhi leonard that is an awesome team it also meant that derrick barely saw the court he played just 17 games off the bench spent most of the year in the g league and the next season the spurs imploded kawhi had beef with the organization and demanded a trade they sent him to toronto for demar derozan jaka purdle and picks tony parker left the team for charlotte manu ginobili retired what is going on derek got a lot more playing time as what's going on 67 games in year two playing 26 minutes a night he scored 36 against the nuggets in a playoff game now they lost that series and they still have not made it back to the postseason and if you know anything about the spurs unless they're like in the finals we don't hear a damn thing about them in the media dejante murray also emerged in their backcourt so derek went back to the bench and he basically played for like four and a half years out of the spotlight so how did that guy turn into the most important trade of the nba season well the celtics needed a playmaker they relied so much on jason tatum and jaylen brown that people said they should break them up despite making three conference finals instead they broke up the front office brad stevens went from coach to gm and they hired derek's old assistant coach ime udoka fans wanted to trade for like you know deer and fox or cj mccollum but they got derek white what how is that the missing piece i mean yes he's an upgrade over dennis schroeder but he can't even shoot he was 32 from 3 in san antonio and he got even worse in boston but even when his shot wasn't falling derrick impacts the game in the playoffs only al horford and jason tatum have a higher plus minus he has been so good on defense like this block and steal against steph in game two his play making has been clutch filling in for marcus smart when he was injured and playing all but 48 seconds in their dominant game one fourth quarter but he hasn't been great the whole playoffs something happened that changed everything his wife gave birth to their first child during the east finals before that derek scored seven points a game on 24 from three since then 13 a game 44 from deep with elite defense and i'm not saying becoming a dad is what changed everything like fred van vliet in 2019 or am hoops in 2022. the difference is getting used to his surroundings when he got there he said it took a while to even know the plays it was kind of weird they'd call a play and i'd be looking around like where am i supposed to be but his teammates just told him to be himself they didn't care that his shot was inconsistent they knew everything else he brought the celtics are built on defense they have two all-stars on offense already derek maximizes all of that so really he was the trade that put it all together he was the missing piece getting someone like dear and fox would have taken away from their identity even though he's a max player derek fits everything they want to do and now four months after the trade he is finally fitting it so right now i'm gonna play the entire interview that i did with derek white honestly that one clip was the only one that kind of organically fit in today's video everything else felt like i was trying to like awkwardly jam it in but i just want you to see it because it's really cool to hear his story from his own perspective was your dream always to make it to the nba or was it just to maximize whatever your potential was yeah i mean growing up you watched the nba and you want you want to be on that stage but when i got to college i just wanted to maximize my years there and do whatever i can to help the team win there did you ever think about doing anything else i mean that whole time you're being doubted did you ever think well maybe i should give this up yeah i mean i thought about maybe just going to school at cu maybe just going to csu and learn some business or whatever i might have picked so you know i thought about it but i always knew i wanted to play derek white i want to be a nutritionist without those people that were in the room and all the coaches i had from childhood to high school the d2 coach coach boyle it all it all having them all in the same room and i was really thankful that they all could come and all my family was there too it was great so coach pop called you and now we've all seen the video you've been asked about it how emotional it was right what was pop saying to you in that conversation well he was just saying that he decided to work with me uh just watch my tapes and he's ready for me to get out here and he wanted to hear a little bit about my my story did you ever think about going to new york did you want to you know i thought about it but just spending time with family and sharing that moment with all them and i thought it'd be better and then i read a quote where you said never give up if you can play basketball will find you what did you mean by that basketball is all over the world um players come from different backgrounds different cities so if you can play and you can show that you can play basketball will find you when you play wherever you want to play it and for you it's on the spurs congratulations thank you [Music]

Channel: A.M. Hoops

Views: 158,397

Keywords: Boston Celtics, nba finals, derrick white, underdog story, derrick white story, nba, celtics warriors, golden state warriors, celtics championship, celtics win, celtics trade, nba story, jayson tatum, jaylen brown, ime udoka, san antonio spurs, nba draft

Id: AFRxMFAap_E

Length: 10min 24sec (624 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 10 2022