Boston Celtics guard Derrick White had one of the best breaks in 2024 when he became part of the US men’s national basketball team. As a replacement for All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard, White was named part of Team USA. He was one of three Celtics players on the roster who had just won the NBA championship. He was with Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum in Paris for the Summer Olympics.
The highlight of White was winning the gold medal with the team. However, he also became a topic among fans even before the tournament started. During the opening ceremony, he was one of the athletes in front of the boat. As LeBron James and tennis star Coco Gauff waved the flag, since they were the flag bearers, fans noticed that White blocked a sign.
White talked about the incident in the latest episode of his podcast, “White Noise.”
The Boston Celtics guard said he found a spot in front but was asked to move since James and Gauff were to be positioned where he was standing. This led him to go to the left side, and a sign covered him and his view. He went in front of the sign to get a more ideal position.
“I go underneath it and it says ‘United State of America.’ I’m like, ‘They don’t need to see this. There’s flags everywhere.’ After, my phone’s blowing up and everyone’s like, ‘There’s no way you stood in front of that sign. How could you?’
“I was like, was that a big deal?” White said.
Derrick White talks about the time he fully blocked the Team USA flag during the Olympic Opening Ceremony 🤣 pic.twitter.com/uTd2Oi4nov
— Kicks (@kicks) August 6, 2025
It seemed like a big deal for many. Fortunately for White, his blunder was overshadowed by the team’s gold medal win.
The Boston Celtics guard revealed LeBron James’ message to the team before the Olympics
Being among some of the best players in the world, there was no guarantee that the Boston Celtics guard would have a defined role on the national team. Fortunately for White, his defense was valuable to their success, which helped them win the top prize.
Before the tournament started, White and the rest of Team USA a message from James.
“LeBron was like, ‘We’ve got 12 of the coldest players in the NBA, that it doesn’t matter if you have 30 points or 5 points,” White said. “We need to just win this gold medal. That’s the mindset that we all had going into it.”
In the end, it was a total team effort that led them to win the gold medal and make a name for themselves in Olympic history.
For other sports-related content:
Follow me on X at @BarbecueBro, and follow us at @HardwoodHeroics and @GridironHeroics. You can also reach out to Reign Amurao via email at reignamuraonba@gmail.com. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest sports news, click here!
Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
