Here’s How Gregg Popovich Broke Celtics Trade To Derrick White

Derrick White is an NBA champion now, but his memory of joining the Boston Celtics still stings a bit.

In the first episode of his “White Noise” podcast, the Boston Celtics guard opened up about the moment he learned the San Antonio Spurs were sending him to the East — and how blindsided he felt by the decision.

At the time of the 2022 trade deadline, White was 27 and a central piece of the Spurs’ rotation. San Antonio, fully leaning into a rebuild, moved him for a package that included Romeo Langford, Josh Richardson and future picks. The shock was instant.

“Getting traded in-season is one of the craziest things that I’ve had to deal with in my NBA career,” White said, as transcribed by Chris Mason of MassLive. “I was hurt, definitely, when they traded me.”

He was not the only one caught off guard. White’s wife was seven months pregnant, and he was on the road in Atlanta when Gregg Popovich knocked on his hotel room door to break the news personally.

“Pop walks in like, ‘Uh, we traded you,’ and I’m just sitting there thinking he’s joking,” White said. “Then he’s like, ‘We wouldn’t [expletive] you. We sent you to Boston.’”

White took the next few hours to process the move the only way he knew how — dominoes, cocktails and leaning on friends. As he tried to make sense of the sudden change, former Celtics assistant Will Hardy called with a flight plan.

Now, three years later, White has a championship ring and a gold medal. The trade may have hit hard at first, but it was the beginning of a much bigger rise.