NBA players are by definition some of the world’s most competitive people, given how hard it is to make it into the league, never mind stick around in it for multiple seasons. And when it comes to NBA players like Boston Celtics point guard Derrick White, we may be dealing with a competitive streak that has few rivals on this planet.
White recently opened up about his teeth and how he smashed them up fairly well in the Celtics’ 2024 NBA Finals series with the Dallas Mavericks on an episode of his “White Noise” podcast, revealing that the University of Colorado – Boulder alum was playing with a seriously mashed up grill. “As soon as it happened, I was like, ‘Oh, my tooth is gone.’ My entire tooth was gone. I put my tongue up there, and I couldn’t feel anything,” he said to cohost Welsh. “Then I was like, ‘It was Game 5 of the finals, like I’m not missing this.’ I just got back up. One of my favorite moments is hitting that 3 right after that and looking at the bench like, ‘(expletive) that tooth! We don’t need it.'”
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“So I’m literally in the dentist chair the entire halftime,” explained White. “There’s like one and a half minutes left, and I get up, and I’m like ‘All right, whatever, forget it — let’s go,'” he added, alluding to getting out of the chair with his teeth still very smashed up.
Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) drives to the basket against Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) in game five of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden in Boston on June 17, 2024.
“I’m walking out, and I walk out with (Celtics head coach) Joe (Mazzulla),” said the Colorado native of his return to the court at halftime’s end. “He’s like, ‘Just win the game,’ and so I just go out there and we play. And I didn’t really think about it too much except when like people would ask, ‘Let me see your tooth.'”
The Celtics, of course, won the game and their first title since 2008, but you should definitely check out the rest of the story of what White did after helping Boston win it all on that episode.
Listen to “Havlicek Stole the Pod” on:
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Spotify: https://tiny.ee/CdKp
iTunes: https://tiny.ee/RK47
YouTube: https://tiny.ee/cOW3
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Derrick White on playing for Boston with broken teeth in the NBA finals