Derrick White unfazed by chatter around his Team USA selection: “He goes and controls what he can control”

For a couple of weeks now, Derrick White has known he was a likely candidate to replace Kawhi Leonard on the US Olympic basketball team if he wasn’t healthy enough to play.

But with Team USA several days into training camp, and Leonard reportedly playing feeling good and playing well, he no longer expected the call to come.

So, as Team USA began training camp in Las Vegas, Derrick White and his father, Richard, were busy preparing for the annual Derrick White Basketball Academy, a week-long basketball camp held for kids in Parker, Colorado.

“A month ago, they said that if Kawhi was unable to play, he’d be on the shortlist to be called up as a replacement,” Richard White told CelticsBlog in an exclusive interview. “Then, when Kawhi showed up at camp, he kind of thought like ‘this was never going to happen.’”

But, on Tuesday, seemingly out of nowhere, the Clippers and USA Basketball jointly decided that Leonard would sit out of the Olympics to prepare for the NBA season.

In a flash, the former Division II player who was barely recruited out of high school became the 12th addition to one of the most star-studded rosters in basketball history.

Derrick got the call late Tuesday night, but insisted on going to his kids’ camp the next day – it was film day, after all. He wasn’t going to miss it.

​”Wednesday’s the day they do the ‘chop talk’, where he breaks down like 12 to 15 minutes of film,” Richard said. “He goes and tells them what goes into each individual play — not just the highlights. Some of the younger kid like the dunks and stuff, but he breaks down how you play defense, what you need to do on the defensive end to never take plays off.

It’s not Derrick White’s first rodeo with the national team. He previously repped Team USA at the FIBA World Cup in 2019, alongside Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart, among others. That team finished with a 6-2 record and came in 7th place, and White – still a Spur at the time – came off the bench. He averaged 5.9 points, 2.3 assists, and 1.3 steals in 15.5 minutes, and shot 46.3% from the field.

“It was pretty exciting when he got called up to play for FIBA in 2019, so this is just way over the top, to play for the Olympics,” Richard White said. “To put on the USA jersey is very exciting.”

Derrick White’s selection to the Olympic roster quickly became a national debate

Since White was announced as the final addition for Team USA, there’s been national debate regarding whether he deserved the last spot. He’s the only member of the team who has never been named an All-Star, and several star players, most notably his Celtics teammate Jaylen Brown, were not named to the team.

Soon after the decision was made public, Brown turned to Twitter to seemingly insinuate that his history calling out Nike – which is closely intertwined with USA Basketball – kept him off the roster.

Brown’s relationship with Nike is a whole other, complicated story – and it’s unclear whether the decision to keep him off the roster has to do with his history of social activism. When asked about his exclusion from the roster on Thursday night at the ESPYs, Brown declined to elaborate.

“One day I’ll share my story,” he said. “People don’t have all the information in the world that they would like to know.”

Grant Hill, who serves as the managing director of USA Basketball, denied speculation that Brown might be held out due his relationship with Nike.

“You have to build a team,” Hill said. “And one of the hardest things is leaving people off the roster that I’m a fan of, that I look forward to watching throughout the season, throughout the playoffs. Guys who’ve been Finals MVP, guys who have been a part of the program, guys who’ve won gold medals. Guys who I respect, admire and enjoy watching.”

On a team inundated with stars and score-first players — like Anthony Edwards, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Devin Booker — Derrick’s addition could be just what is missing.

“They’re looking for specific skill sets and stuff,” Richard said. “He was on the list, and he just narrowly missed out being on the original list.”

Whether Derrick deserved has become an increasingly popular talk show discussion. But, according to his father, he’s not fazed by the discourse.

“There’s always going to be some sort of chatter or buzz about something,” Richard said. “This whole year, there was always stuff being said. He goes and he controls what he can control.”

Now, Derrick White is en route to the United Arab Emirates

This morning, Richard drove his son to the airport, where he’d board a flight to Abu Dhabi and meet up the rest of his USA teammates.

“I just gotta do what I got to do,” Derrick told his father in the car ride. “Just be true to myself.”

Richard and his wife plan on joining the team in Paris at some point this summer: “We got a late start, but we’re trying to figure out how to get there.”

According to Richard, Derrick has a good sense of what his role will be on Team USA.

“They’ve got it scripted out,” Richard said. “They sent him defense and the offensive game plan, and they told him specifically what role and when he’s going to play, and that kind of stuff. It’s all kind of geared up and in place.”

While White is joining the team late, he’ll be greeted by several familiar faces, namely Jayson Tatum and Jrue Holiday with whom he just won an NBA Championship.

“Everybody knows everybody, so there’s no real surprises,” Richard said. “It’s kind of interesting to see the different relationship bonds that build.”

He’ll also be joined by a myriad of all-time greats who he’s never been teammates with, such as Lebron James, who praised White for his “poise, his ability to guard, his ability to shoot the ball.”

White is fresh off of the best season of his career; he averaged 15.2 points, 5.2 assists, and 4.2 rebounds, while shooting 39.6% from three. In the playoffs, his scoring numbers improved even further, as he averaged 16.7 points on 40.4% from three.

“Just bringing in another championship DNA guy, it’s great,” James said.

An Olympic Gold medal could cap off an incredible summer for Derrick White – one that’s already included an NBA Championship and a 4-year, $129.5 million contract extension.

“It would be huge,” Richard White said. “It would kind of complete the year – winning an NBA championship and then getting a gold medal on top of that. That would be a good double-dip.”