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Coby White is giving Chicago something to cheer about 25 years later.
The emergence of Carolina’s talented shooting guard has spiked attendance at the United Center with a new chant the fans have been shouting for the last couple of weeks during three straight home games.
“Coby! Coby! Coby!”
Funny, he had an early season slump that provoked some different sounds.
The Bulls have not won an NBA conference title since 1998, also the last of six NBA championships won by those spectacular Michael Jordan teams.
The current Bulls are 8-14 and that includes winning their last three games at home behind White’s stellar play. It is their first three-game win streak of the season. Coby’s teammates love to talk about his work ethic and leadership.
He had his best game squaring off against New Orleans star and former Dukie Zion Williamson, scoring 31 points with eight 3-pointers, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal. Coby put 23 points on the Bucks and had 19 points and 10 rebounds vs. Hornets.
Sam Smith, who wrote the book The Jordan Rules, has a long piece on Coby on NBA.com. He said White’s play may deserve its own book, a story of how Coby came from rural Goldsboro. He was a highly rated prep star, fighting off the effects of his father’s death from liver cancer as a high school junior.
Teammate DeMar DeRozan calls him “ultra-aggressive, ultra confident and decisive in his 5th season after the Bulls took him No. 7 in the 2019 draft. His 3-point shooting from the longer NBA line had risen to almost 41 percent. White is tied for eighth in hitting three or more treys in eight consecutive games.
“The main thing is squaring my body up to the rim,” he told Smith, “and then holding my release and follow through to the basket. “Those are the main things I focus on. Every day is a process, and you have to be consistent.”
In his one season at UNC, when the Heels went 29-7, he never lost two straight games, but did lose to Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament and then ended his college career in a Sweet 16 loss to Auburn which had several athletes of White’s ilk.
Carolina hasn’t had nearly as many one-and-doners as Duke and Kentucky, and White was one of those guys we loved but never really got to know. He’s made appearances in the Smith Center when the Bulls’ schedule allows it.
“Coby! Coby! Coby!”
Enjoy all the attention, young man. You have earned it.
Featured image via Associated Press/Paul Beaty
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