Homegrown Victorian product Jack White has agreed to a three-year deal which will see him a part of Melbourne United until 2023.
White’s signature could open the door to a potential new era at Melbourne United who are facing the very real possibility of moving forward without Australian Boomers star and team captain Chris Goulding.
White has just returned from playing at the prestigious Duke University alongside talented teammates who are all household names, now playing in the NBA. That list includes Jayson Tatum, Marvin Bagley III, R.J. Barrett, Wendell Carter, Cam Reddish and superstar rookie Zion Williamson.
‘‘Going back and forth between Zion, R.J. and Cam, three just super-talented offensive players, you’ve got to be locked in so you don’t get embarrassed every day,’’ White said, adding: ‘‘You’ve got to learn how to use what you have to best combat what they do.’’ Jack White told reporters during his senior year at Duke.
The 22-year old provides the team not only with a youth injection but also a legitimate power forward, something they’ve missed in previous years, having to rely on older or smaller options like David Barlow or Casey Prather in the past.
White measures in at a legitimate 201cm and 101kg and will bring hustle and versatility to both ends of the floor.
“Guys I’ve always tried to model my game on are Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler. I like how they compete at both ends of the floor and I think I have the ability to do that in my career. I aim to be a two-way player and compete at both ends. I strive to be an already player” said White on the Aussie Hoopla podcast
White’s signing creates an interesting future for United. Over the past month, both United coach Dean Vickerman and CEO Vince Crivelli have noted they’d love to have Goulding back but haven’t been able to find a financial agreement between the two parties.
With Melbourne planning to start Mitch McCarron at the point this season, have Shea Ili coming off the bench and sign a big name import to play shooting guard it creates a situation where not only would Goulding be expected to take a pay cut, but have to accept a role off the bench as well.
White’s addition could signal the team’s move toward the future with the team prioritising White over Goulding, a move which obviously leaves less cap room to re-sign Goulding, who has been a part of the program since 2013 and acted as team captain for the past three seasons.
White, grew up playing basketball in Traralgon, a small country town in Victoria’s Gippsland region, where Melbourne NBL teams have played exhibition games frequently during the past decade.
White grew up attending many of those pre-season match-ups held in his local stadium and dreamed about what it would be like to play in the NBL, hopefully, one day his local Melbourne team. Today it became a reality.
Jack White playing for his junior club, Traralgon Basketball Association
Interestingly, before heading off to play in the NCAA White actually played some minutes in the NBL. He took to the court in four minutes of game time part of the Cairns Taipans at 18 years old. It was a chance to get some valuable experience but ultimately he found himself a boy among men.
This time around it will be a lot different.
White played in 30 of a possible 31 games this season for Duke, and in his senior campaign, he averaged 3.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game while shooting 38.8 per cent from the field and 32.7 per cent from 3-point range.
While those numbers may seem modest, the talent behind them isn’t. Often White was asked to become more of a role player to the NBA talent which filtered through the program but in his first professional season, he is ready to show the world what he can do.
With the NBA’s age limit it was common for White to play with talented aspiring NBA stars for one or two seasons before they entered in the NBA Draft. Williamson, Jayson Tatum, Marvin Bagley III, R.J. Barrett, Wendell Carter and Luke Kennard all played cameos at with White at Duke where his leadership was relied on to keep the Duke Blue Devil’s culture intact.
Duke University has been a part of the NCAA for 105 years but only 23 people have been a team captain for two seasons in a row. White’s leadership was impressive enough for Mike Krzyzewski, Duke’s legendary coach to make him the 24th name on that list last season.
“At first, I couldn’t believe it,” White said. “It felt very random and out of the blue. It happened so fast. As an international kid who hadn’t been in the states before, who hadn’t played high school ball or AAU, yeah, it was all a bit surreal to me.” said White.
White’s leadership will be integral to the future of Melbourne United who publicly had some difficulties getting players on the same page last season.
Last season there was a lot of us trying to work out what was happening on the floor.
We will be really be patient with our line-up this year to make sure we get not only the skillset right but we get the culture part right as well” Vickerman told Aussie Hoopla podcast.
White grew up playing alongside other talented Australian’s like Kouat Noi, Isaac Humphries, Jack McVeigh and William McDowell-White and hopes to outperform all of them in his first full season in the NBL.
While running up and down the court and Melbourne Arena will tick off one thing on White’s bucket list he still has some lofty goals he wants to achieve.
“Every kid’s goal growing up is to play in the NBA but something that would be really special to me is to play in the Olympic games. I just want to be a Boomer, something I’ve always wanted to do” said White.
White has already donned the green and gold for Australia in both the Under 17 and Under 19 FIBA World Championships. In 2014 he teamed with Isaac Humphries, Dejan Vasiljevic, Harry Froling and Kouat Noi to win a silver medal, falling by 7 points to a talented US team which included current NBA stars Jayson Tatum, Josh Jackson and former Adelaide 36ers Terrance Ferguson.
White’s services were pursued by nearly all nine NBL teams with talented Australian big men not common in the NBL but White’s ability ensures he is more than ready to make an impact.
“I believe in my own ability and how I go about things so I think I’ll be able to make an impact straight away.”
“All I want to do is win games and be known as a winner.”
White has that work ethic that is synonymous with being brought up in the country and looks set to be a candidate for NBL rookie of the year.
As one door closes it seems another is opened at Melbourne United… and this one is possibly even more exciting.
Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.
