Billy White: How He Made Canada His Basketball Home
London Lightning
6’8
Forward
From Las Vegas, Nevada
2024 BSL Champion
2024 All-BSL Team
2020 NBLC MVP
2xNBLC Champion
4xAll-NBLC Team
Billy White is among the most accomplished to ever play basketball in Canada. Ever since he first joined the league in 2015, his fast-paced play and tenacious offence have made him one of the country's most prized and feared players.
The 2023-24 Super League season was no different.
On his fourth game both for the London Lightning and on the Super League season, he finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists; he would go on to have nine more double-doubles in 2023-24 and only finished five games having scored in single digits.
There were fourteen instances on the season where White broke the twenty-point mark, among those some of his biggest highlights moments of the season, including 31 in a one-point win over the Windsor Express, and 27 points and 13 total rebounds.
Ending the season having averaged 17.5 points on 55.2% shooting, as well as 7.6 rebounds, he earned the latest honours in his long, storied Canadian career: a deserving place on the All-BSL First Team and his third title in Canada. This follows a long streak of success since White made his debut in Canada in 2015 with the Halifax Hurricanes of the NBLC.
In 52 games played in the regular season, he averaged 11.5 points and 4.7 rebounds, his part in Halifax finishing with a league-best record of 29-11. The Hurricanes went on to dominate the post-season, sweeping the Island Storm and Saint John Mill Rats en route to the finals, where they beat the London Lightning 4-3 to claim their maiden NBLC championship.
He followed this with a short spell in Cyprus with Apollon before returning to the Hurricanes in November 2016. He started in all 51 games for Halifax, posting 17.2 points and a career-best 8.7 rebounds per contest, results which saw him named to the All-NBL Canada first team. He re-signed with the Hurricanes the following year, building on his offence from the past season with 18.6 points per game, earning his second All-NBLC first team honour.
In 2018 he joined Halifax's Atlantic Division rivals the Moncton Magic. In the season he played 43 games, starting in all but one, and scoring an average of 17.3 points per game, as well as a rebounding average of 6.7 and a career-best 3.4 assist per game. Moncton finished with the best record in their history and in the NBLC and went on to a resounding win in the finals, sweeping the St. John's Edge 4-0. White was named to the All-NBLC second team.
The Magic retained White's services for the 2019-20 season, in which he started in all nineteen games and led the team in scoring with an average of 18.9 points, as well as finishing in the league's top ten. He achieved the highest number of points scored by a player in a single game, with 52 against his old team, the Halifax Hurricanes. His many achievements in this one season made him a clear choice for league MVP.
When play in Canada resumed following the COVID-19 Pandemic, White suited up for the Windsor Express for two seasons. He started in every game he appeared in over two years, almost averaging a double-double in his first season (19.9 points and 9.6 rebounds) and reached the NBLC Finals in his second. In between, he was named to NBLC Ten Year Anniversary Team.
What led Billy White to his dominance in Canada? After graduating from Green Valley High School in Henderson, Nevada, White became the starting power forward of the San Diego State Aztecs, averaging 9.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game across four years.
In his last two seasons with the Aztecs, he was a team mate of NBA star Kawhi Leonard and was named to the Mountain West All-Conference team. Leonard isn't the only notable future basketball professional White has played with, as he played in the 2011 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament alongside Jimmy Butler and four-year NBA veteran Brad Wanamaker.
White began playing professionally in 2010 with the Iowa Energy in the NBA D-League, later receiving a contract with the Miami Heat, but never played for the team. He moved on to the Rethymno Cretan Kings in Greece and spent the 2013-14 season in Mexico with Fuerza Regia and Guyamas, for whom he averaged 21.4 points in seventeen games.
After playing the 2013-14 season with Ramla in Israel he finally made to move to Canada, and in doing so cemented his legacy. Finding success wherever he takes his talents, Billy White has firmly established himself as an elite player in Canada and one who can create and inspire his team to new heights of success.
