Coby White Will Always Be Remembered for His Perseverance

People didn't fully process Coby White leaving the team after the trade until he first returned to the United Center for his Hornets debut, wearing a blue-green training outfit and doing drills on the opposite side from his former teammates.

The sense of strangeness and melancholy loomed largest when White orchestrated the offense at the game's opening, his signature swinging Afro secured by a headband, banging a pull-up jumper, and later creating an open three-point look for his new Hornets teammate Grant Williams.

Bulls fans might officially move on after the Hornets slaughtered Chicago 131-99, when White approached his former teammates afterward, chatting with Tre Jones with smiles and dapping up Matas Buzelis — in a way only they knew — before departing in different directions toward different locker rooms.

Though he wore Bulls red just weeks ago in early February and logged 30 minutes in his final game against the Milwaukee Bucks, it's time to close his Chicago chapter. For White, he'd already sensed it coming after Nikola Vucevic and Kevin Huerter were packed off to Boston and Detroit, respectively. The moment became real when he picked up Arturas Karnisovas' phone call the day after the Bucks game. He'd been traded.

"You can kinda read between the lines," White said before his return on Tuesday. Compared to the fans in the stands displaying his jersey and chanting his name Tuesday night at the United Center, White, who had mentally prepared in advance, was the first to move on.

When asked if this felt like a relationship that never quite reached marriage, White responded with bittersweetness.

"Things change," White said. "The way the season was going wasn't really stacking enough wins consistently. So...like I said, it's the organization. They gave me a chance and an opportunity to build on my dreams."

Yes, the Bulls built his NBA dream. They selected him seventh overall in the 2019 draft out of North Carolina — the first Tar Heels guard in history drafted in the first round after his freshman season, and also the first player from the state of North Carolina since Michael Jordan. He became the first player born in the 2000s to play in the NBA, making his debut ironically against the Charlotte Hornets on October 23, 2019. He earned All-Rookie Second Team honors that season.

But through countless roster moves around him, things never went the right way. Though White grew gradually and seemed poised to cement himself as the Bulls' next star, Chicago never returned to playoff success. The franchise hasn't won a playoff series since the 2016-17 season.

Being the first millennial-born NBA player didn't bring good fortune or destiny for White and the team. They never experienced a honeymoon period, though White desperately wanted to be the one who stayed.

Though White became an embodiment of the team's mediocrity, he has something Bulls Nation should remember: his perseverance. After being diagnosed with a calf strain before this season, White worked through the grueling recovery process and returned in November. Though setbacks with his calf arose midway through the season, he never faltered in soaking up minutes on the court.

“I thought it was just tightness. So I didn't know, (the medical staff) didn't know that was a cap strain. So that's just kind of how it played out. It was nobody's fault. That's just what happened…it was never hindering me from playing,” White said.

Every time Billy Donovan established playing-time restrictions when he returned from injury, White outplayed those limits — simply because when he was on the court, he impacted winning.

Those nights when White held himself firm and led the backcourt epitomized the perseverance that defined his NBA career with the Bulls. Beyond moments like that, White wants people to remember him as an inspiration.

"I think I want to be an inspiration to guys who maybe early on didn't pan out like everybody thought they would. And then you prove a lot of people wrong. And I just want to be an inspiration to guys like that," White said.

He wasn't just speaking about younger players like Buzelis. White spoke for himself, a lottery pick who survived the ups and downs, who finished second in Most Improved Player voting in 2024, who set the Bulls' single-season franchise record with 216 three-pointers made in the 2024-25 season

The relationship may not have ended in marriage, but what he represented in Chicago will endure.