As of this week, all 12 members of the U.S. national team heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics were multiple-time NBA All-Stars. That all changed on Wednesday when future Hall of Famer Kawhi Leonard was ruled out with an injury and replaced by Boston Celtics guard Derrick White.
So why was White, whose USA Basketball resume lists NBA honours such as “2023 All-NBA Defensive Team” and “2018 NBA G League Champion”, called up instead of the many other American stars, including his Celtics teammate and 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown?
It’s a legitimate question Brown himself apparently asked on social media on Wednesday, and USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill has a legitimate answer.
In an interview with Andscape’s Marc J. Spears, Hill had a great line when asked about the challenges of assembling a 12-man roster from such a strong talent pool.
“It’s like a puzzle,” Hill told Spears, “you have to put the pieces together, and it leaves out some really good players and players that I’m a fan of.”
“…But a coach once told me that a team is like a piano recital. You have a piano mover, a piano tuner and a piano player. You need all three to play well. Not everyone is a piano player. So, I don’t know if we fit the bill, but you need roles and you need people who fit them.”
Hill made the comments before White was added to the roster on Wednesday, but it aptly sums up why the versatile Celtics guard is heading to Paris.
White has been the perfect teammate for Boston this season, doing whatever the team asked of him with little ego, whether it was facilitating Brown and Jayson Tatum on the ball, taking over as the team’s primary offensive option or guarding the opposition’s best player.
White has repeatedly proven he can make big shots when it matters — he shot 52.2 percent on “clutch” 3-pointers in 2023-24, the highest percentage among NBA players with at least 20 attempts — but he rarely forced shots and almost always made the right basketball play.
Essentially, White is the perfect “piano tuner” for Team USA, and Hill seems to realize that. White and Celtics teammate Jrue Holiday aren’t likely to log the most minutes or have the most flashy stats in Paris, but they’re ideal role players to complement a long list of superstars on a U.S. team led by LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid and (self-proclaimed) Anthony Edwards.
Brown certainly deserves to be on the U.S. national team, and there’s every reason to prioritize the Celtics star over a player like Devin Booker, but White is also a great fit for the current roster, and Grant Hill seems to understand that.
