Derrick White is typically one of the chattiest players in the Celtics locker room — regularly poking fun at his teammates, telling stories, and is inundated with energy.
But when the 31-year-old star guard speaks with reporters, he often picks his words carefully, and appears more reserved. As such, he’s developed a reputation in Boston of being a fairly quiet and shy guy.
That could soon change, as fans are going to get a more unfiltered look at White through his new podcast, the White Noise Podcast with Derrick White, which he’s launching with his longtime best friend, Alex Welsh.
And, Welsh believes the project will give fans new insight into their favorite player’s personality, noting how professional athletes have to remember what to say and what not to say when conducting their in-season media availability.
“He’s very much a jokester,” Welsh told CelticsBlog. “He has good energy all the time, [he’s] always trying to be funny, he is funny, he’s a very light-hearted guy.”
How Derrick White’s new podcast came to be
The duo dropped the first episode on Monday, months after a mutual friend of theirs who works at the media company Kicks approached Alex Welsh with the idea.
“I was so unserious about it,” Welsh said. But the friend, whom White knew from his playing days with the San Antonio Spurs, reached out again, reiterating he thought it made perfect sense.
When Welsh relayed the concept to White, he was surprised by his response.
“He was much more interested in it than I thought he would be,” Welsh recalled. “And, we kind of just went for it.”
The fact that the idea came from someone they both knew and trusted created an initial level of buy-in that would have been hard to replicate: “If a big company or whatever tried to fund it, I don’t think he’d be as receptive, but because it was someone close to us, it worked out.”
White had appeared as a guest on podcasts numerous times over the years, including on JJ Reddick’s Old Man and the Three, and those appearances were something he grew to enjoy.
“When I brought it to him, I was like, ‘I’ve never actually asked you — do you like doing podcasts?’ Welsh said. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s actually fun. I do enjoy it. I think it’d be really fun to have our own and talk about the things that I want to talk about, versus being interviewed by someone that I’m not super close with.’”
As Derrick White’s best friend, Alex Welsh was the no-brainer co-host
White and Welsh were college roommates and teammates at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, where White began his college basketball career.
They’ve been best friends ever since; their kids are close, their parents are close, and while Welsh still lives in Colorado with his wife and kid, he frequently visits White in Boston.
“We get the kids together a lot. I spent a lot of time at the ‘White House’, as we call it, and going to [Celtics] games,” he said. “So, we’ll just sprinkle in a little bit of podcast recording on our usual trips.”
The fact that White and Welsh go way back should help the Celtics star open up and tell the funny stories he’s been sitting on over the years, Welsh said. Now, rather than giving a ten-second soundbite surrounded by reporters, White will be able to spend 15 minutes on a story that he’s previously only alluded to.
“People only know the very surface level of him,” Welsh said. “And that was a lot about what we talked about — he is really funny, and he is outgoing, and he’s a good storyteller. He’s just a very light-hearted person. And I think the Celtics community that supports him knows that to some extent, but they don’t know the real him completely.”
Welsh was a serious basketball player, too, and the two have lots of stories from their playing days. After four years of basketball at UCCS, Welsh played overseas in Brazil, Poland, and Switzerland. Today, he works in technology sales and has a remote job that gives him the flexibility to spearhead this project.
And through it all, Welsh closely followed the trajectory of White’s exploding career. His Twitter feed is mostly retweets highlighting White’s on-court impact. And, he’s not at all surprised at how his best friend’s NBA career has unfolded.
“How do you put it into words?” Welsh said. “I look at him kind of like a brother. So it’s weird for me to say, I’m proud of him, but I suppose I’m super proud of all that he’s been able to accomplish.”
The future of the White Noise podcast with Derrick White
Lots of NBA players have podcasts, including Draymond Green, Michael Porter Junior, Paul George, Trae Young, LeBron James, CJ McCollum, Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Brunson, and Josh Hart, among others.
Welsh said the two don’t know exactly where this project is going to go — offseason episodes are logistically easier to manage, and everything is subject to change during the NBA season.
But things have come naturally so far. Episode One has already accrued more than 10,000 views, and features White discussing the Celtics’ offseason moves at length, getting traded to Boston, and critical moments from his college career, among other stories.
“We’re working on Episode Two right now — it’s been a blast,” Welsh said. “A lot of it is just things we’re [talking about] around the dinner table, but we haven’t had a recording of it. It kind of clicked for us — we should be recording these conversations, and making other people laugh as hard as we are.”
Welsh reiterated the podcast won’t get in the way of White’s primary focus: Celtics basketball.
“We want it to become something, but we also want to prioritize the season,” Welsh said. “If it ever becomes counterintuitive to the success of him and the Celtics, it’s not something that we’re going to be holding on for dear life.”
So, whether the podcast becomes a big hit and something the two consistently work on remains to be seen. They’re not going to force the issue.
“I wanna be able to say, ‘hey, we’re gonna let it rip,” Welsh said. “We want to be like the Kelce Brothers, like Old Man and the Three, All the Smoke’ — sure, we’re studying them, we’re watching all those guys, but only time will tell once the season kicks off and life changes a little bit.”
But one thing is for certain: the White Noise Podcast will give Celtics fans who have long loved Derrick White the opportunity to get to know him much better.
Welsh is excited for that, too.
“He’s not a glitz and glamor guy, flying around on his own plane,” Welsh said. “He’s fundamentally, to his core, the same person he was when we were 18, pulling up on campus… he just has a few more dollars in his pocket.”
