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Coby White began his Tuesday by watching new Chicago Bulls teammate Josh Giddey play for Australia at the Paris Olympics and continued it with an appearance at White’s youth basketball park in Bedford Park.
It’s all part of a leadership process that White most strongly began displaying last season during a breakout campaign in which he finished second in NBA’s Most Improved Player voting.
And with the new makeup of the Bulls, who traded Alex Caruso for Giddey, signed-and-traded DeMar DeRozan and drafted 19-year-old Matas Buzelis to pair with White, Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams, White knows his leadership will be counted on even more.
“We got a younger team this year,” White told a media group that included NBC Sports Chicago. “So we’re trying to take steps in that (leadership) category.”
In fact, White said he and Ayo Dosunmu, who also attended the camp with his father, have talked about this very dynamic. That echoes words that Williams voiced during NBA Summer League in Las Vegas after Williams re-signed with the Bulls.
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“DeMar always led by example. He wasn’t always the loudest guy in the room or most talkative guy in the room. But if we had a meeting, he was early. If we had a bus time, he was one of the first ones there. He was never late to a meeting. He was always ready to go. When the game came, it was always about business,” White said. “And the way he took me, Dos, DT (Dalen Terry), Pat under his wing, it shed light on the things that I’m looking forward to when I get older. And that can start now for me.”
Indeed, White, 24, is entering his sixth NBA season. There are high expectations for a player who averaged 19.1 points and 5.1 assists last season while averaging 36.5 minutes over 79 games in a huge jump in responsibility.
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White said he’s been working on his conditioning and shooting off the dribble during an offseason that included time with DeRozan.
“I feel that’s a relationship that’s going to last a lifetime,” White said of his now former teammate, who will play for the Kings.
White said he enjoys holding a camp in the Chicago area because of the love the city has shown him during his time with the Bulls. And because while growing up in a small town in North Carolina, he didn’t have the opportunity to see an NBA player in person.
White complimented Buzelis for the potential he flashed in Las Vegas, where White watched the first-round pick’s debut from a courtside seat.
“Young, very athletic, can run the floor hard, finish above the rim. He’s super skilled,” White said. “Obviously, summer league is not the same as the NBA season, but he showed flashes of who he can be. He’s really talented. You can’t teach his size and height.”
Just like you can’t teach White’s progression as a leader and player. Progress in the NBA isn’t linear. Some players take longer than others to develop. White is ascending just as the Bulls shift into a new look.
“Obviously, it’s hard because of the human aspect of seeing AC go, seeing Deebo go, seeing Drum (Andre Drummond) go, seeing guys that you played with for a long period of time and you built a personal relationship with them. But it’s part of the business,” White said. “It’s a lot more opportunity for young guys. We have to keep pushing and build and work toward something special.”
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