Derrick White, of the United States, blocks the shot of Carlik Jones, of South Sudan, in a men’s basketball game at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Derrick White, of the United States, blocks the shot of Carlik Jones, of South Sudan, in a men’s basketball game at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France. AP Photo / Mark J. Terrill
By Chad Finn and The Boston Globe
August 6, 2024
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Perceptiveness is among the wide and deep well of traits that makes Derrick White a special basketball player and teammate.
And so it was hardly a surprise when he observed recently, after Team USA’s Olympic-opening win over Serbia in Lille, that he and runningmate Jrue Holiday had something of an advantage over some higher-profile teammates.
While the superstars on the team have to acclimate to sharing the ball and splitting minutes with other high-usage, name-in-lights peers, White noted to the Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach that he and Holiday basically have the same job assignment as they do with the Celtics.
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That assignment is having the prescience, savvy, and skill to provide whatever the team needs on either end of the court.
“It makes it easy for me and Jrue,” said White. “We just try to go out there and do what we do and try to help us impact winning whenever we can. I know we’ve got a lot of talented guys on the team.”
It would be both easy and correct to say that White and Holiday are exceptional being Glue Guys. There might be three guards as well-rounded and utterly unselfish in the entire NBA, and they were a major reason the Celtics will be hoisting their 18th championship banner to the TD Garden rafters.
(You’d better believe I’m one brilliant Holiday/White game away from declaring them America’s Backcourt, Steph Curry or no Steph Curry.)
But I can’t help but wonder: Is anyone else with me hoping that basketball fans who are watching White and Holiday work their selfless wonders for Team USA finally recognize that these guys are superstars in their own way, and true stars in the conventional way?
