During the media practice in Etihad Arena, Boston Celtic’s shooting guard Derrick White was talking about his experience during the Olympics with the USA national team and about his team.
“Obviously the chemistry that we got last year is beneficial but every year is different, and we just need to continue to improve what we gained last year. We understand that it is gonna be a challenge but we are looking forward to it”, said Derrick, who was in Abu Dhabi before with the USA national team this summer.
During the summer and now White visited on of the World’s famous Mosques and was impressed with what he had seen.
“I went to the Mosque (Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque) in Abu Dhabi already, when I was there with the USA team, so this is my second time there. It is obviously a beautiful place and it is really cool to just see it in person and to see all the details they have in there and to hear a different stories about why is it like that. I am grateful I had a chance to learn about the different culture and I need to confess I have enjoyed”, said Derrick White, who won gold Olympics medal with the USA national team.
“It is totally different to play in the NBA and for the national team this summer at the Olympics. In the NBA we have more space, basketball is different, it was the biggest adjustment. It is FIBA styles versus NBA. Those styles are completely different. The line for the threes is closer there but I am pretty sure everyone were shooting as they used too. That wasn’t our biggest adjustment, but one of it was. It was a lot of different things, small things but we needed to adopt”, continued Derrick.
Derrick and USA had a great summer, but not easy one. They needed to defend Olympic gold and again the team managed to do that. But, at it was mentioned, they had a rough journey, and in Whites opinion two most difficult games were against France (Finals) and Serbia (Semifinals).
“The hardest matches at the Olympics were the last two, Serbia game was insane, and after the game against France as well. I was impressed by the Serbian guys, they were fighting and I had to confess I didn’t heard about most of them before, but now I will remember now, and how they were playing defense. It was a perfect game”, said White, who will for the first time have the chance to try to defend the NBA ring.
