Derrick White on the court.
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Derrick White explains injury sustained during 2024 NBA Finals.
Boston Celtics guard Derrick White appeared on the Tuesday, March 17 episode of “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.” During his time chatting with Fallon, White recalled an injury that he sustained during the 2024 NBA Finals.
When the Celtics took on the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5, White’s tooth got knocked out of his mouth.
“I go to the game, I get hit in the mouth. I had a bridge on at the time and it came out, so I just picked it up and went straight to the back,” he recalled. “I’m not a hockey player, so I had to figure out a way to glue it back together.”
The Celtics went on to beat the Mavs 106-88, clinching the finals 4-1.
Derrick White Went to the Dentist the Next Day
While White wanted to make sure to get to the dentist to fix his broken tooth, he was forced to improvise. During his interview with Fallon, White said that he’d put off going to the dentist for a while, despite having some teeth issues “in the past.”
“They just kind of glued it and then I put a mouthpiece on it, played the rest of the game and eventually went to the dentist the next day,” White told Fallon.
Nevertheless, White ended up being okay, but if you look closely at some photos taken from that particular game, you will be able to see the glue on his tooth. Of course, if you didn’t know the story, you’d never be able to tell that White had any issues with his teeth as his smile looks perfect.
Celtics Fans Loved Watching White on ‘The Tonight Show’
After his time on “The Tonight Show,” White shared a clip of the interview on his Instagram page. Dozens of Boston Celtics fans took to the comments section to show him love. The particular clip was of White sitting on the infamous “cop slide,” which went viral after a Boston police officer slid down it extremely fast.
“I can’t believe I missed this episode! I love DWhite!!” one person wrote.
“Derrick White is a national treasure and needs to be protected at all [costs],” someone else said.
“If you would’ve gotten injured because of a damn slide… it would’ve been war,” a third comment read.
“Those slides are basically industrial-grade fryers in the summer sun. Keep your legs, Derrick…we need those for basketball, not for a cautionary tale,” a fourth fan added.
When White isn’t busy gluing his teeth back into his mouth or posing for pictures on the cop slide, he’s an intricate part of Boston’s roster. White joined the team in February 2022 following a trade with the San Antonio Spurs. In 2025, he re-signed with the team, inking an impressive four-year $118 million contract extension.
“I didn’t want to play nowhere else. Like I wanted to be in Boston. I’ve always said that. It was pretty simple. Pretty straightforward. And so, signing that, I was super excited just to stay in Boston, to continue to be a Celtic, hopefully do great things in Boston. More years in Boston,” he said on an episode of his “White Noise” podcast.