Jumping Jack ready to take on the world

Friday, August 25, 2023

"I’m just going to continue to play hard, play the right way, make the team better on both ends of the floor, and what happens will happen."

The warm-up games are complete and the final roster has been submitted officially to FIBA, ahead of the Boomers’ first game of the 2023 World Cup this Friday against Finland.

For Jack White, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind these past couple of weeks, to get to this point.

White, who is coming off his rookie NBA season and a championship ring with the Denver Nuggets, on top of some gaudy numbers in the NBA G League, came into camp earlier this month full of confidence.

As the numbers whittled down from 18, to 15, to 13 ahead of the ‘Boomers vs the World’ games last week in Melbourne, White’s name remained in contention.

However, he was informed in the midst of those games by Brian Goorjian that he was likely on the outside looking in for one of those final roster spots and was currently 13th in the pecking order.

White went into last Thursday’s final game in Melbourne versus South Sudan with nothing to lose.

But a horror injury to White’s former Melbourne United championship teammate, Jock Landale, meant that the new OKC Thunder signee has travelled to Japan and is locked in to help this roster on their latest ‘Gold Vibes Only’ quest.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It's official! ?<br><br>Here is your 12-man team that will take on Finland, Germany and Japan in Group E at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreBasketball?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreBasketball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinForAustralia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WinForAustralia</a></p>— Basketball Australia (@BasketballAus) <a href="https://twitter.com/BasketballAus/status/1694198979649847748?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Speaking briefly to NBL Media following Wednesday’s practice in Okinawa, White explained that he views everything that got him here positively and only had one word to describe how he’s feeling about it all.

“Excited,” White said.

“Excited to try and help this group try to get a gold medal. It’s been our goal all camp, it’s been our standard now for the last couple of years, especially after Tokyo. But this is a dream come true for me and [I’m] just excited to do everything I can to help us win.”

Even when he wasn’t sure if he’d make the final roster, White asked Goorjian if there was anything else he could do and was told to 'just keep doing what you're doing'.

With Landale out, what White brings to the group is even more important now.

That length on the wing and the ability to switch between wing defender and rim protector defensively, while using his athleticism in transition and spreading the floor with his improved three-point shooting, is going to be needed in these smaller lineups.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jack White block ? <a href="https://t.co/iKZ6tGSRRd">pic.twitter.com/iKZ6tGSRRd</a></p>— Jordan McCallum (@jordanmcnbl) <a href="https://twitter.com/jordanmcnbl/status/1693224935060348994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That has White feeling very comfortable with how he can help and what his role will be.

“Yeah 100 per cent,” he explained.

“I’m confident in what I bring to the group and what I bring to winning, and I’m just going to continue to play hard, play the right way, make the team better on both ends of the floor, and what happens will happen.”

Obviously though, not having Landale is a massive loss for this team. The Boomers now have no choice but to play smaller.

They’re lacking legitimate size at the five spot, but having won their last three games without Landale, the group is now feeling very comfortable in how that direction and style as a smaller unit is coming together.

“Yeah absolutely,” White said.

“I think especially defensively, it brings a lot of versatility with switching groups and stuff like that. Across the roster, guys are versatile, so we’ll be able to fill the gaps as needed.”

The Boomers had two further warm up games since arriving in Japan. They faced France on Sunday in Tokyo and then Georgia here in Okinawa on Tuesday.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Who will top Okinawa's group of death? ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIBAWC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIBAWC</a> x <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinForAll?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WinForAll</a></p>— FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 ? (@FIBAWC) <a href="https://twitter.com/FIBAWC/status/1694153678020853994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Both were an opportunity for these smaller lineups to test themselves versus bigger opponents. Both games saw the Boomers challenged to find a way to win. In both instances, they did exactly that.

And so, they’ve been really important in the final preparations ahead of Friday’s first game.

“I think it’s really going to help us,” acknowledged White.

“We’ve been playing against quality opposition throughout camp within ourselves and obviously these five lead up games, and we feel like we’re in a really good spot to start off this tournament strong.”

The Boomers face Finland in the opening game of Group E play at 6pm AEST on Friday night, live on ESPN.