PARKER, Colo. — While the 16-year-old inside Derrick White was all shook up, the 28-year-old Boston Celtic on the outside was tempted to pull an Elvis on his television set.
“I mean, it was tough to watch,” White, the former Colorado and Legend High star told me during a break at his Derrick White Academy basketball youth camp Wednesday at Parker Fieldhouse. “I watched Game 5 (of the NBA Finals). That was the only one I watched.”
On this much, all the voices inside White’s head agree. The Nuggets haven’t just set the bar for the rest of the NBA. They are the bar. With or without free-agent super sub Bruce Brown riding shotgun.
“I don’t know about favorites or not. That’s out of my pay range,” White laughed. “But they were the best team last year. They did what they needed to do. And everybody’s now got to hunt them down.”
If Boston’s Jayson Tatum doesn’t roll his ankle in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat, what the hey? Maybe somebody else is king of the mountain right now.
But know this: That the C’s whiffed on a chance to meet the Nuggets in the Finals sure as heck wasn’t on White, who averaged 14.3 points and 3.3 treys in the conference finals while connecting on 48.9% of his attempts from beyond the arc. Oh, and there was that little last-second, heads-up make that single-handedly rescued Boston in Game 6 and forced the series to go the distance.
In arguably the most adorable moment of White’s insanely adorable Q-and-A session with campers during the 11 a.m. hour, one of the kids asked if Celtics guard could replicate the Tip Heard ‘Round The World.
“Someone’s gotta miss it the same way (Marcus Smart) missed it,” White replied with a shrug.
A billion little hands shot up at once.
“I can miss!” a kid shouted.
“I can miss, too!” another pleaded.
The shavers were in seriously good form Wednesday. Good questioning form, anyway.
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray?
“Probably the hardest (duo) to guard in the league,” White replied.
Toughest guy to defend?
“(James) Harden (when I was a rookie) … pretty much any (replica) jersey you see at this camp is tough to guard.”
Could you work out a trade to Denver?
“Why would I wanted to get traded? I like where I’m at right now.”
As well he should. White was so efficient over his first full season in the Celtics backcourt that Boston felt comfortable enough to trade his old running mate, Marcus Smart, to Memphis in a deal that brought back big man Kristaps Porzingis from Washington.
“Obviously on a personal level, it’s tough to see Smart go,” White told me. “He does so many things — there’s really no replacing what Marcus Smart does.
“But bringing (Porzingis) in and the things that he can do is going to be a big help for our team and we’re looking forward to it. And my mind says I’ve got to get better. I’ve got to be better than I was last year and I’ll have more opportunity and I’ve just got to take advantage of it.”
And as good of a player White is, he’s an even better dude. During the camp’s lunch break, a strapping 7-footer in a white t-shirt snuck in to give his old pal a little grief.
It wasn’t long before one of the youngsters at the Fieldhouse ran right up to White’s pal and former Spurs teammate, Raptors center Jakob Poeltl.
The moppet then craned a tiny neck up as if the big lug was a skyscraper and asked him rhetorically:
“Are you an NBA player?”
Poeltl, who’d popped into town to hang with White en route to the wedding of San Antonio guard Tre Jones, just nodded and laughed.
At least big Jakob had a place to crash. Last June at this time, White worked out a deal with the family of Avs star Nathan MacKinnon to rent their suburban Denver abode for a stretch of the summer.
Alas, that gambit ran headlong into two hitches. One, the Stanley Cup Playoffs started late. Two, the Avs and MacKinnon rocked that party all the way up to closing time.
The Avs didn’t clinch until June 26 — Game 6 in Tampa, on a sultry Sunday night — and didn’t hold their celebratory parade until the morning of June 30.
“Yeah, it was a nice little thing we had running there, where Nathan MacKinnon’s parents would go overseas and then I’d be (coming) at kind of around the same time,” White recalled. “It worked out. Luckily, I don’t have to deal with that anymore.”
He’s got a place of his own here of now, so no harm done. Although watching Nuggets lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy was kind of like having one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets in your hands, only for it to blow away. Then finding out the guy who recovered the thing was your best friend in 7th grade.
If it couldn’t be him, he’s glad it’s them. Mostly. Pretty much.
“Obviously it’s great for the state of Colorado,” White said. “And I want to say I was happy that (the Nuggets) won. But it was tough that we weren’t in a position (to win the Finals). That was our goal at the end of the day. So we’ve got to do what we need to do to get back and get to that level, too. Quick.”
