Why White Nearly Left Duke Before Becoming Captain

Melbourne United signing Jack White has revealed he seriously considered leaving Duke after his sophomore season, when the school went on a high-level recruiting spree.  

When the Blue Devils brought in the likes of now NBA stars Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish, White didn’t know where he stood in the pecking order of coach Mike Krzyzewski’s squad.

Instead of leaving Duke in search of greater opportunity though, White remained at the school, a decision that turned out to be beneficial as he ended up being named captain alongside his best friend Javin DeLaurier.

“Going to Duke, the first few years were definitely a huge challenge,” White told Gibbo Goes One-On-One driven by MG.

“I didn’t play a lot, I was trying to navigate being in a new country and trying to work out how I could contribute to a really successful team.

“Looking back on it, I’m really grateful for doing that and every day in practice I was going up against the likes of Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard, Grayson Allen, I could go on and on, just the star-studded players I was able to compete against every day.

“Even though I wasn’t playing a lot, I definitely felt like I was improving, as much as it was frustrating because I love to compete, I love to play, and that’s all I really wanted. I really tried to focus on running my own race in a way.

“I was thinking of pulling out of college after my sophomore year because that was when RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish and Zion committed and they’re all my size and my position. I was really unsure about where I sat in the program.

“I decided to stick it out, in part due to the educational part of Duke, but just to prove something to myself that if I just focus on the things that I can control, I can make it work.

“I ended up having a really good offseason, came back to school, had really good workouts for the whole period before the season against those guys. I ended up becoming captain of the team with my best mate Javin.”  

White served as Duke captain in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons and he says leading the team was “not a hard job” despite the high expectations that come with being a Blue Devil.

“It was really special, especially to do it with him (Javin), because we had kind of similar experiences where we didn’t play as much,” White said.

“He was a really highly ranked player in high school and went on a bit of a roller coaster with me in terms of just navigating the whole experience.

“It was announced to the team and that was pretty cool to see the support they showed us.

“I think the cool thing about it was it didn’t really change anything about myself or him or even the dynamic of the group.”

Listen to the Gibbo Goes One-On-One podcast driven by MG every Wednesday night at 6:30pm AEDT, as Adam Gibson is joined by a special guest each week. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.