The final game for Team USA in its Olympic journey saw another crucial member of the Boston Celtics championship team not see the floor.
After Jayson Tatum was benched in a semifinal win over Serbia, it was Derrick White’s turn to log a DNP-CD when the United States took down France, 98-87, on Saturday to win its fifth straight gold medal.
Steve Kerr’s decision to bench White benching certainly won’t draw the same outcry that Tatum’s did. Remember, White wasn’t even on Team USA’s initial roster as he replaced the injured Kawhi Leonard, a move which drummed up its own controversial storm.
White doesn’t have the same stature as Tatum or even Jrue Holiday, but White was the only member of the Celtics trio on the Olympic team to appear in the five games leading up to the gold medal bout against France — Holiday missed one game due to injury.
White had a front-row seat to greatness in the finale, though, as Steph Curry caught fire late by draining four straight 3-pointers to put the game away.
The Celtics guard also watched his Boston teammates contribute to the win, but Holiday and Tatum sure didn’t play a leading role. Tatum was the first player off the bench for Team USA but failed to make a major impact, scoring just two points and grabbing three rebounds in 11 minutes. Holiday did a little bit more in 19 minutes by scoring six points and dishing out four assists.
The benching probably won’t bother White, a team-first player willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. And it will be a lot easier for him to accept what happened with a gold medal hanging around his neck.
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