Why White’s impact never quite fit the All-Star mold
If you’ve watched the Celtics this season with any level of attention, Derrick White’s absence from the All-Star Game probably felt wrong on an instinctive level.
And yet, when the reserve list was announced Sunday night, it also felt inevitable.
That tension - between what the numbers say and what the Celtics actually are - is where the Derrick White “snub” conversation really lives.
On paper, White doesn’t scream All-Star. His counting stats are fine but unspectacular: 17.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.4 assists. His shooting has dipped for long stretches, sitting at 39.1% from the field and 32.2% from three. In a league where All-Star selections still heavily reward box-score gravity, that resume doesn’t move the needle.
But the Celtics aren’t the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference because they chase box scores.
They’re here because they win possessions - and no one on the roster tilts possessions more consistently than White.
Boston is 31-18, has survived months without Jayson Tatum, and has done it without turning Jaylen Brown into a heliocentric bailout artist or stripping the system down to survival mode.
That’s not accidental. It’s structural. And White is the connective tissue holding that structure together.
He guards the best perimeter player every night.
He quarterbacks late-clock defensive switches.
He’s the release valve when the offense stalls, the secondary creator when Payton Pritchard is pressed, and the reason Boston can toggle between lineups without losing its identity.
The Celtics don’t just play better with White on the floor - they play like themselves.
Jan 28, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) watches a free throw against the Atlanta Hawks during the second half at the TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty/Imagn Images)That matters. Or at least, it should.
The frustration for Celtics fans isn’t that White lost out to superstars. It’s that Boston, sitting near the top of the East, was treated differently than its peers. Detroit (36-12) has two All-Stars. New York (31-16) has two. Boston has one.
The message - intentional or not - is that collective excellence still gets discounted when it doesn’t come packaged with gaudy individual output.
To be clear, this isn’t some great injustice.
Historically, players with White’s statistical profile rarely make it. Coaches, who select the reserves, leaned toward louder production on shakier teams. That’s how Pascal Siakam, Jalen Johnson, and Norman Powell get the nod. That’s the system working as designed.
So was Derrick White actually snubbed?
In the literal sense? Probably not.
In the basketball sense? Absolutely.
And the Celtics know the difference.
This team has lived in that gap all season - between perception and reality. Jaylen Brown proving he can lead. Pritchard thriving when stars sit. Neemias Queta carving out legitimacy. Joe Mazzulla winning without excuses.
White doesn’t need validation to play the way he plays, but there’s no doubt recognition would have mattered.
Instead, it becomes something else.
Another quiet slight. Another reminder that what Boston is doing doesn’t always translate to headlines.
Which, if history is any guide, is exactly the kind of thing this group feeds on.
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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.