Derrick White Height, Parents, Family, NBA Career

White’s professional career in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is still in its infancy, but he shows many prospects. No one would have believed that a kid who almost ended up in a cooking school because he didn’t have any college basketball opportunities after high school would suddenly gain a foothold in the NBA, as Derrick White does.

His selection on the evening of the 2017 NBA Draft, when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the phrase, “With the 29th election, San Antonio selects Derrick White,” established the adage that you can be whatever you want to be if you work hard enough. He summarizes Derrick White’s hunt for the “American Dream”, which reached its climax when he and his family and friends watched Commissioner Silver call his name from the draft podium.

Derrick White Biography

Born and raised in Parker, a town in southeastern Denver, Colorado, Derrick was welcomed to Mother Earth on July 2, 1994. Information about his family is not available in full detail, but his father’s name is listed as Richard White and his mother as Colleen White. His love for basketball was obvious even as a young child, but his small and fragile body frame remained a chunk of his leg.

He attended Legend High School in Parker, Colorado, where he continued to play basketball until he graduated. Then came the challenge, because, despite his good statistics from his high school career, White never received offers for college football. He was largely overlooked because of his small body frame, and the only offer he received came from Johnson & Wales University, a cooking school. His parents hoped for the best as his father, Richard, sent his tapes to schools to watch, but still, no offer came.

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Weeks turned into months, and White had quit enrolling in the cooking school (at least they had a basketball court), whose coach, Jeff Culver, was interested in him. By a stroke of luck, however, Culver was named head coach of the NCAA Division II school at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, and imagine Derrick White becoming his first Mountain Lions recruit.

He was called to the team for his first season to join the team, but after an injury in the team guard, White was called up for duty and he never looked back. He soon proved too good for Division II, which was requested by the Division I teams. And although he felt the departure was emotional, the move to a Division I team was a big step closer to the NBA. He transferred to the University of Colorado at Boulder to play his final college season for the Colorado Buffaloes after playing three seasons for the UCCS with the Mountain Lions.

In his solitary season with the Buffaloes, which was considered a success, he averaged 18.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game. In recognition of his accomplishments, White was named to the first-team All-Pac-12 and was also a member of the five-man All-Defensive team.

Derrick White NBA Career

Derrick White’s path to the NBA had been far from smooth, and unlike most of the kids around him, where the media blew the trumpet from high school to college before the drafts, White had to earn every single opportunity he ever got. It was so hard for him that someone joked and said he would be the first recruit to use the money from his newbie contract to pay off student loans.

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He was drafted in the 2017 NBA Draft with the 29th overall selection of the San Antonio Spurs and in July he signed up to the dotted lines and landed his first NBA contract. After his debut from the bench against the Minnesota Timberwolves, he was sent to the Spurs’ sister team in the NBA G League, the Austin Spurs. Since then he has been called back to the Spurs team but is waiting for his time.

Family: Parents

The names of Derrick White’s parents are Richard and Colleen White. There is no further information about them except that they have been very supportive of Derrick’s career. They stood by him during the most difficult times of his career to date.

Apart from Derrick, no other children are mentioned for them, so it can be assumed that he is their only child.

Body Stats: Height

Since he has suffered a lot because of his boyish structure, it will be good to specify what he is currently measuring because we know that Derrick White, who is currently playing for the San Antonio Spurs, is not the same person who left Legend High School in 2012. These days White stands at 6 feet 4 inches (1.96 m) and has gone from a weight of just under 150 lb (150 lb) to 190 lb (86 kg).