NBA Hall Of Famer Serves As Longtime Mentor For Celtics Guard

Boston Celtics guard Derrick White can make a call if he has a question, thought or just needs to talk.

White gets good advice, too, because on the other end of the line is an NBA Hall of Famer.

Chauncey Billups, who played 17 NBA seasons and currently is the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, has known Boston’s on-court difference-maker ever since White attended Billups’ camps in the Denver area as a kid — White actually took over the camps now.

Billups certainly is impressed with White’s basketball journey, going from a Division II college player to an integral part of a championship team. Billups followed along closely throughout and has been there along the way as a long-time mentor of White.

“When you come from where he’s been and how he’s had to kind of elevate and climb through, you know, I’m sure there was a lot of times along the way when he questioned himself and the process,” Billups told Heavy’s Steve Bulpett. “And that’s always when we had our talks, man. But I’m just so proud of him. I’m just so proud. Couldn’t be more proud of him.

“I did have those talks with him, really to just let him know, like, ‘You can do this.'”

White showed he was more than capable of stardom, even on an elevated stage, with the Celtics making a run to a title. White delivered big moment after big moment, including knocking down a clutch 3-pointer to wrap up the Eastern Conference finals and a crucial block in Game 2 of the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

White and Billups got on the phone with one another throughout the postseason, but the two stayed away from diving into X’s and O’s.

“Only encouragement,” Billups told Bulpett. “Only like, ‘Good job, keep going, you’re looking good, keep leading, keep being that guy, they can’t do it without you.'”

White, who signed a lucrative contract extension with the Celtics this offseason, surely has many more moments ahead of him in his basketball career. And surely Billups will remain in White’s corner through it all.