Dealing with yet another calf issue this season, Bulls guard Coby White is trying to keep a positive face. Although he has been tested a lot, he said Friday he’s winning the inner battle.
“It’s very frustrating, just because you think you’re past something and then it hops back up again,” he said.
White’s calf issues began in August when he strained the right one during an offseason workout, setting himself back for months. After missing all of training camp, the preseason and the first 11 regular-season games, he finally made his season debut on Nov. 16 on a minutes restriction. But within two weeks, he was experiencing tightness in his left calf.
A two-game shutdown was the result. He started to feel normal again last week, even playing in his first back-to-back games. But those good feelings came to an abrupt stop Monday when he felt tightness in his right calf in the first half against the Timberwolves.
“It just got tight, and it was persistent,” White said. “It started to loosen up a little bit, so I tried to test it out and get it moving again. But it was still a little persistent, so they were like, ‘Shut it down.’ I got an MRI, and it showed that it wasn’t a re-strain. The MRI actually looked better than it did in November, so it’s about just getting it to calm down. It was like a warning shot to get us to make it calm down.”
White went back to rehabbing and hopes to be reevaluated Monday to get a sense of when he might be able to return.
But it may become more complicated than that as White — having played in only 16 of 34 games at this point — gets closer to becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer. His health could affect not only his next contract but also his return value to the Bulls if they end up trading him, as has been discussed. That’s not an ideal situation for either side.
“You could sit here and say, ‘Why me?’ ” White said. “Then you look around the league, and there’s guys in worse situations than me in terms of they come back, [reinjure themselves], and then they’ve got to sit out even more time. You’ve got to keep a positive perspective that you’re not the only one in the world going through what you’re going through. It’s frustrating because I do want to be out there, and I don’t feel as well, like, as a person and mentally when I’m not playing. It’s hard for me to go through this. . . . I look at it as God is trying to teach me something through this, and maybe I’ll figure it out at the end of it.”
Minny matchups
Facing off against each other is nothing new for the Bulls’ Tre Jones and the Magic’s Tyus Jones, who were matched up for multiple minutes Friday. The brothers from Apple Valley High School also weren’t the only players from Minneapolis on the floor. Magic guard Jalen Suggs was a standout at Minnehaha Academy and Minnesota Mr. Basketball in 2020.
Tyus Jones was the state’s Mr. Basketball in 2014. Tre earned the honor in 2018.
Best man for the job
Coach Billy Donovan said the undermanned Bulls’ rotation would continue to be matchup-based rather than set. That was the case Wednesday when he didn’t even play forward Julian Phillips because of the physicality of the Pelicans’ frontcourt. With the Magic’s reserves more on the athletic side, he turned to Phillips over Jevon Carter.