Derrick White Explains His Grotesque Dental Injury as Jayson Tatum Reveals Immediate Aftermath in Surprising Admission

Tonight’s game between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers recorded a nasty injury. What happened to Celtics guard Derrick White was something straight out of a UFC fight. It was gruesome and concerning, but it was also not the first time this had happened to him.

In the second quarter of the game, while he was all over Kelly Oubre Jr, an inadvertent elbow from the Sixers guard knocked out a couple of White’s teeth. He had to leave the game midway to receive treatment, but he made his return later on.

“They [his teeth] were temporary, and I was supposed to go in like two weeks ago. I kept pushing it off to get my permanent ones,” said White, explaining his injury. A reporter then asked him why he risked further injury in a random regular-season game. But White had seemingly thought this through. 

“Well, after the glue and mouthpiece, I figured, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ I mean, long as I didn’t take the mouthpiece out. And so ‘Just get back out there and keep the mouthpiece in.’ That’s what kind of how I thought about it,” he reasoned with the reporter. But by far the funniest moment of the press conference came when a reporter asked whether White would consider playing with a mouth guard, since this was the second time he’d had his teeth knocked out.

“No,” he stated bluntly. “I’ll consider it, though, but no,” he said, prompting laughs from the entire room. But the reporter had a point. It was just nine months ago that Derrick White had his teeth knocked out for the first time in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

However, while we fans were concerned about Derrick White losing the ability to flash his pearly whites, Jayson Tatum had something else on his mind initially.

Jayson Tatum reveals his thoughts on the injury to Derrick White

Jayson Tatum was there when White had his teeth knocked out the first time. Once again, Tatum had the best seats in the house to witness history repeat itself. He may have been too close for his own liking this time, though. That’s because his first response was concern. Just not for Derrick White.

A reporter asked him for his reaction to Derrick’s teeth popping out. “Start checking my s–t, make sure I was good,” Tatum hilariously responded. He then went on to reveal his actual thoughts about the situation.

“I mean, tough, right? You know, [it] happened [during] Game Five of the Finals last year. So, just hate to see somebody deal with the same thing over and over again. But I was surprised he came back. But, you know, a competitor hates not to play, always wants to be out there. So, you know, I’m glad he’s doing all right,” said the Celtics star.

Anyone would have the reaction Jayson had seen their teammate suffer such a grotesque injury. It happening twice in less than a calendar year makes it worse. It’s nice to see that the Celtics stars can laugh about it. But we sincerely hope that when White gets the permanent replacements, he considers wearing a mouth guard. The chances of that happening are slim, though.