FIBA World Cup: Why Jack White was the Boomers’ unsung hero against Finland
While all eyes were on Boomers star Josh Giddey, it was an unlikely hero who stole the show in Australia’s World Cup-opening demolition of Finland.
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Patty was up to his old tricks and Josh Giddey flirted with a triple-double in his major tournament debut but the unsung hero of Australia’s World Cup-opening demolition of Finland was a man who wasn’t even supposed to be there.
Jack White, a late inclusion in the Boomers’ squad of 12 after a cruel twist of fate sidelined his former Melbourne United teammate Jock Landale, was handed the massive task of coming off the bench and stopping Finland’s seven-foot giant NBA All-Star Lauri Markkanen.
Welcome to your White-mare, Lauri.
Opposed to Markkanen for exactly 10 minutes and 38 seconds of the Boomers’ 98-72 win, White’s commitment, intensity and ultra-athleticism proved the Utah Jazz gun’s kryptonite.
The 26-year-old bodied, harassed and basically made the NBA’s reigning Most Improved Player give up on plays at both ends of the floor.
There was no better sequence in the game — well, maybe Patty’s seven straight points during party time in the fourth — but White’s effort to deny Markkanen the ball early in the last resulted in an opportunity for the Aussie at the other end.
He streaked out of the corner off a screen and, as Markkanen hardly flexed a muscle to fight through it, the Oklahoma City Thunder forward buried a triple that gave the Boomers a 21-point lead and drew the curtain on any hope the Finns had of a comeback.
Markkanen took just five shots in his time opposed to White, managing eight points courtesy of a couple of freebies, but the Finns couldn’t get their man the ball thanks to the unrelenting Aussie who forced his opposite number into two of his four turnovers along the way.
When White checked in at the 2.15 mark of the second quarter, Australia was down 40-37 after Markkanen made a pair of free throws, his 10th and 11th points of the game. From there, Markkanen touched the ball twice more for the half — a missed heave from just inside halfcourt with White all up in his grill as the shot clock expired and a turnover as Australia produced an 8-0 run that turned a three-point deficit into a five-point lead at the long break.
Finland’s key man finished the game with 19 points, but was 7-17 from the field and just 1-7 from deep for a team-worst -29 — if you offered those numbers up to coach Brian Goorjian, pre-game, he’d have taken them with glee.
White’s athleticism makes it seem like he’s a near seven-footer but, to many’s surprise he’s ‘only’ 6’7” — 201cms in the real world — while Markkanen is every bit of 213cms, making the effort even more admirable.
White’s +25 in just under 15 minutes on the floor was bettered only by Mills’ +33, a huge indicator of his impact, given he only scored seven points — showing out with a pair of trademark jams for the socials.
Throw back to just over a week ago and it was a Thursday night in Melbourne when White was told the gut-wrenching news he wouldn’t be in the Boomers’ World Cup squad.
It was a tough pill to swallow for a kid who, in April 2021, had ruptured his Achilles while playing for United in the NBL, missing the Melbourne title run where Landale was the Finals MVP and signed a deal with San Antonio.
But the basketball Gods can be cruel and kind.
White went through an arduous rehabilitation to get himself back on the court with United, showed out in NBL22 and caught the eye of the Denver Nuggets, who signed him to a two-way contract as Landale joined Phoenix.
White played 17 NBA games, spending the majority of his time with the G League affiliate Grand Rapids Gold, eventually ending up with a championship ring on his finger at the end of 2023 — The Nuggets beat the Suns in the Western Conference semi finals on their way to the title.
Reunited with the Boomers, White was the unlucky 13th until Australia’s final World Cup warm-up game on home soil when the whole country winced with Landale as he suffered a gut-wrenching ankle roll just five minutes into the clash with South Sudan at Rod Laver Arena.
“Jack was told the situation … that he sits at No.13 and it’s Chris (Goulding’s) position,” Boomers coach Brian Goorjian said at the time.
“I said to him, ‘man, stay ready, just put everything (behind you)’ and he kept (asking) ‘is there anything more I can do’ — ‘no, just keep doing what you’re doing and let’s see how the cards play out’.
“Now he’s in.”
Agency Stablemates at Sports International Group under Melbourne-born rising star Sammy Wloszczowski, Landale’s heartbreak opened the door for White, who is now doing it for himself, his country and his mate, who is back in Houston, where he’s about to begin the first of a four-year, near $50 million deal, cheering the green and gold on.
White, himself, has a two-year deal with Oklahoma City, but is still fighting for a roster spot with the Thunder in the hopes he can link up with Boomers teammate Josh Giddey.
Giddey, who had 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, might have created a little history with the first triple-double in a World Cup, had he not been sent to the bench with six minutes to go — ironically for White — with the Boomers up 24 and the game safely in hand.
Similarly to White, Xavier Cooks proved he is going to be a vital cog in this Boomers team if it is to ascend to the heights the nation dreams of, with his inherent ability to keep plays alive on the offensive glass and his never-say-die defence.
Cooks, too, is a great story, having risen to the NBA through the NBL, dealing with injury after injury before finally getting healthy and getting even with a pair of NBL championships and a finals MVP to show for it.
His nine points off the bench came with a pair of offensive boards, a pair of steals and a highlight reel chase-down block prevented what should have been a certain Mikael Jantunen lay-up.
As for Patty, well, how’s that for form is temporary, class is permanent?
The depths of Mills’ struggles during warm-ups in Melbourne had some questioning if he would be able to get back to his best.
And they had cause for concern — the numbers across three games in Melbourne and one in Tokyo against France were about as ugly as they could be — 12-51 from the field and 6-34 from deep.
Some wondered if, at 35 and coming off a season where he only managed 40 NBA appearances and only averaged 14.2 minutes — his fewest since 2011-12 — he could reach the dizzying heights
A cursory note is they were warm up games and they were not officially FIBA sanctioned.
He’s a different beast when the bright lights come on in major international tournaments.
It started brightly: He made the Boomers’ first bucket, a trademark midranger that tickled nothing but twine, and scored four of the first six Aussie points.
He didn’t make another shot until halfway through the second quarter but finished the half with 12 to help the Boomers wrest an eight-point lead away from Finland.
Co-captain Joe Ingles — not the Aussie cricketer Josh Inglis, as the court announcer in Okinawa kept referring to him as — deserves mention for his 13 points on a trio of threes as he fought through the pain of a mangled elbow he suffered when he slipped on the court when officials failed to ensure it had been adequately dried.
They would not trail again as Patty popped in another nine in the last to bring it home.
Next on the menu for the Boomers is a much stiffer task — Germany.
Expect White to get another chance to tackle an NBA monster. Emerging 208cm Orlando Magic star Franz Wagner.
We wish you luck Franz — you’re going to need it.
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Originally published as FIBA World Cup: Why Jack White was the Boomers’ unsung hero against Finland
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