You look great.
Welcome to the show.
You've been in the NBA for 10 years.
Is that right?
This is year nine.
Nine.
Nine years.
And last night, you were honored as Defensive Player of the Month.
Yeah.
How does that feel, to be Defensive Player of the Month?
Your dad must be proud, because I read some articles where you used to have a Nerf hoop and he would throw balls into the hoop and you'd swat it out of the way.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, dad is definitely a proud father.
Yeah.
Yeah, we grew up in and he used to put a little nerve poop on the closet door and I had to make the rule that no dunking was allowed, because that was too easy for him.
Of course, he was the dad.
Here you are, a little younger.
Yeah, I was a little guy.
Yeah, come on, bud.
So layups only, and I was able to get some blocks from there and I think it kind of translated to to me blocking some shots to the NBA.
-"Defensive Player of the Month."
Not too shabby.
And a gold medal, too.
Come on.
Not too bad.
Come on.
I mean, yeah.
You're a dad now.
Are there a lot of Nerf hoops in your house right now?
Yeah.
You can't walk about 10 feet in my house without finding a basketball hoop somewhere.
Is that right?
We got a lot of basketball around.
I'm not forcing them into it, but... Yeah, you kind of are.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Here's you with baby Hendrix in the hospital.
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
How many years ago was this?
That was about three, almost four years ago now.
That's unbelievable.
That's the day he was born.
It's all happening.
Missed the game.
You gotta watch the game with it.
And the Celtics won, so.
There you go, man.
You won.
You had a big party when you were drafted in 2017, but your mother said she called it a graduation party.
She wanted to take some of the pressure off.
Why'd she call it a graduation?
Was it your graduation party?
You do both?
Was it a dual party?
Yeah, my mom was always worried about too much pressure and stuff.
But I didn't actually have a graduation party because I was at the NBA Combine.
So it kind of served as both as graduating from college and finally I'm not finally, but like getting drafted in the NBA.
So it was great to have all my friends and family there and we had a great time.
You were just waiting for your name to be called?
Yeah, everybody's just kind of like looking around and like, is it going to be the time?
Is it going to be the time?
I'm like, you guys probably had to wait.
It's pick number one.
Like I'm not.
Yeah, you had to wait a little bit.
It takes some time, but it was a great time.
What was the first big moment when you realized, wow, I'm finally, I'm in the NBA.
This is actually happening.
It's real.
Yeah, I mean the first time I actually had some real minutes.
I check in against OKC and I go to the free throw line and I got Carmelo Anthony and Paul George and I'm from Colorado and so Carmelo Anthony was basically my whole childhood.
And so I'm kind of like, This is amazing that I'm here next to you.
I can't believe it.
And so that was kind of like my eyes were wide open the whole time.
I probably turned it over the next play.
Yeah, yeah.
You go, well, I'm too nervous.
Take me out.
Take me out.
Take me out.
This is too much, Pop.
Help me out.
Yeah, right?
Yeah.
Then you also had something happen to you, which I thought was great.
And you know I have to bring this up.
There's something happened with your tooth during one of the games.
Your tooth fell out or chipped or something happened to your tooth.
And instead of you just playing along, You glued your tooth with just like Elmer's glue or something and you could see it right there.
What happened, and how did you end up with a glued tooth?
So I've been putting off going to the dentist for a while and I had some, had some teeth issue in the past, and so Go to the game, I get hit in the mouth and I had a bridge on at the time and it came out, and so I just picked It up and went straight to the back and I'm not a hockey player, So I had to like figure out a way to to glue it back together or figure it out.
So they just kind of glued it and then I put a mouthpiece on and then play the rest of the game and Eventually went to the dentist the next day.
What did your dentist say?
What's wrong with you?
He said, I told you to come in a week ago.
You're a legend in Boston.
Everyone loves you.
Everyone loves you around the country.
But in Boston, come on.
It's priceless.
You get to go everywhere.
I saw you did a thing with Sam Adams, which, by the way, is fantastic.
What you do with Sam Adams is great.
I know you got to ride the duck boat. which is anyone from Boston knows this.
The duck tour.
I bought a duck boat.
You bought a duck boat.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, that was fun.
You got to do the cop slide.
You guys know the cop slide?
I sat on the bottom of the cop slide.
Do you know the cop slide?
If you don't know it, it's a great video.
It went viral.
Here's the cop slide.
Wow!
I went a little too fast.
Oh, my gosh.
Everyone's okay.
But you didn't go down.
You just sat on it?
Yeah.
Yeah, so I was sitting there.
I was like, maybe I should go down and, like, and then they wouldn't let me.
Yeah, they're good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You're American.
You're royalty.
You got a game tomorrow.
Yeah, you're American.
Yeah, you cannot do that.
So I just took a picture at the bottom, but... That's the smart thing to do.
You now have your own beer, by the way.
You have Derek White Ale.
Yo.
Come on.
This is what I'm talking about.
Is life crazy?
It's insane, yeah.
You go, wow.
Never thought I'd have a beer.
No.
Never thought I would drink a beer, honestly.
No, no, yeah, exactly.
I have one.
Now you actually have one with your face on it.
Yeah, it's amazing.
And everyone can get this.
I just figured since it's St.
Paddy's Day, maybe we should have a drink and just celebrate.
We got the green.
I have a nice little pour.
Ooh, it looks pretty good right there.
Ooh, that's a nice pour.
Happy St.
Patrick's Day.
Cheers, my friend.
Happy St.
Patrick's Day.
Derek White, everybody.
Check out the Celtics this weekend on Sunday Night Basketball at 7 p.m. on NBC and Peacock.
More tonight after the break.
Stick around.
