The Colorado native and Boston Celtics guard will be honored alongside six other inductees
Derrick White’s journey from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs to the top of professional basketball has been one of the more quietly extraordinary stories in recent NBA history. Now it is receiving formal recognition at the conference level where it all began. The Boston Celtics guard and Colorado native is among seven individuals set to be inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame as part of the 2026 class, joining a group that spans multiple sports and more than three decades of Division II athletic excellence.
A remarkable rise from Division II
White’s path to the NBA was anything but conventional. While most players who eventually reach the league’s highest levels come through high-profile Division I programs, White spent three years competing at UCCS — a Division II program in Colorado Springs — before transferring to the University of Colorado for his senior season. During his time with the Mountain Lions, he earned All-American recognition twice, establishing himself as one of the most productive players in the program’s history and catching the attention of scouts who might otherwise have overlooked a player at his level of competition.
What followed that Division II foundation has been nothing short of exceptional. White was selected in the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs and steadily developed into one of the league’s most reliable two-way guards. He was later traded to the Boston Celtics, where he became an integral part of a championship-winning team. His NBA title added a professional crown to an Olympic gold medal he earned representing the United States, making him one of the most decorated athletes to come out of the Colorado Springs community.
The 2026 RMAC Hall of Fame class
White will be inducted alongside six other honorees representing a wide range of sports and institutions within the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The full 2026 class reflects the breadth of achievement across the league’s history, from individual athletes to coaching figures who shaped their programs over long tenures.
Anthony Edwards, a football standout at New Mexico Highlands, is being recognized for his contributions during a 1988 season that helped define the program. Angella Graham, also from New Mexico Highlands, is honored for her achievements in women’s track and field, with her career culminating in 2011. Mark Kellogg is inducted for his work as a women’s basketball coach at Fort Lewis, where his tenure concluded in 2012, while Frank Lavrisha receives recognition for leading Regis University’s women’s volleyball program through 2016. Madison McLaughlin, a women’s track and field athlete from Black Hills State, and Eduardo Navas-Rodriguez, a men’s track and field competitor from Western Colorado, round out the individual honorees. Two team inductees also join the class: the 1995-96 Fort Hays State men’s basketball team and the 1990 Western Colorado women’s cross country team.
A ceremony to remember in Colorado Springs
The induction dinner and ceremony will be held on Thursday, July 9, at the COS City Hub in Colorado Springs, taking place in conjunction with the RMAC’s 2026 Awards Banquet. The location carries particular meaning for White’s recognition given that Colorado Springs is where he built the foundation of his basketball career at UCCS. For the city and for the university community that watched him develop long before the broader basketball world took notice, his formal induction into the conference’s Hall of Fame represents a full-circle moment.
White‘s story remains one of the most compelling reminders that elite athletic achievement does not always follow the most visible or expected path — and that the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference has produced talent capable of reaching the sport’s absolute pinnacle.
Source: Colorado Springs Gazette