Bulls guard White trying to make best of imperfect situation
Coby White may not be able to join in Bulls practice since he's recovering from shoulder surgery, but it's hard to knock his attitude.
White was asked Tuesday about the Bulls adding Lonzo Ball this summer, which will send White to a reserve role.
"Life ain't perfect, bro," he said. "You've got to work for stuff. Lonzo's going to really help the team as a major piece.
"He's so unselfish, and as a point guard, he's great defensively which is one thing that I can get from him. So looking forward to this year, I'm excited he's here and it's going to be a good year for both of us."
White is still hoping to make a big leap himself in his third season with the Bulls, but surgery to repair a torn left labrum pretty much wiped out his summer. The injury happened while he was back home in North Carolina playing basketball with his friends.
"I had gotten hit there before, and I kind of felt similar stuff," he said. "And after a day or two it just wasn't feeling right. So I wound up coming back here and getting an MRI, and it showed that I tore my labrum.
"I had gotten hit the same way before and it kind of just went away, but this time the pain really didn't go away. So I was like something must be really wrong with my shoulder."
Tearing a labrum during a recreational basketball game with friends led White to believe his shoulder must have been previously damaged. During his first two years with the Bulls, he's missed just three games.
"If it was bound to happen, I'd rather it happen when it happened rather than during the season, so now I only miss a little bit of the first part of the season," he said. "There's not too much you can do about it. I just kind of took it in stride and continued to just attack rehab. That's all I really could do. Couldn't control nothing else."
White is expected to return in November, so he'll miss the start of the regular season. Coach Billy Donovan said they'll try to get him involved in as much of a noncontact parts of practice as they can. With so many new faces on the roster, Donovan said he wanted to get everyone playing right away.
"I just think they have to play," Donovan said. "We tried to install some things and let them play as much as possible. We'll go five straight days; three of the five will be a lot of contact, physically demanding and the other two will be a lot of teaching and installing and not a lot of contact.
"But I thought for the first day I think the goal was to get them up and down and playing and playing with and against each other and that was definitely accomplished."
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