Derrick White is among NBA players born on July 2.
With over 5,000 players in NBA history, at least one player was born on every day of the calendar year – including four leap day ballers. Our day-by-day breakdown of the players born on each day of the year continues.
Below are the most notable NBA players born on July 2.
Larry Costello (1931)
Larry Costello is widely regarded as the best player to come out of Niagara University. After a successful collegiate career, Costello was selected 12th overall in the 1954 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia Warriors. He only played one season before fulfilling military service the following year, but returned to the Warriors in 1956. Things really took off when Costello joined the Syracuse Nationals the following season, making his first of six All-Star appearances over the next eight years.
Costello finished seventh in MVP voting in 1959 while making an All-NBA Second Team in 1961. It was all capped off when Costello won a title with the Warriors in 1967 because he officially retired in 1968. That wasn’t the end for Costello, though, as he coached the Milwaukee Bucks to another title in 1971. He’s famous for being one of the first coaches to utilize film, and that advancement is more prevalent than ever in today’s NBA. All of that earned Costello a Hall of Fame induction as a contributor in 2022.
Derrick White (1994)
White was the 29th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, spending his first four and a half seasons with the San Antonio Spurs. After a slow start, White improved consistently in his time with the Spurs, averaging 15.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 0.7 steals and 1.0 blocks in his last full season there. Boston saw the vision for an all-around standout, trading for him midway through 2021-22 and making him their starting shooting guard the following year.
White has been there ever since, finishing Second-Team All-Defensive in two of his three years with the Celtics. He also finished eighth in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2024. Things just keep getting better, though, with White averaging a career-high 16.4 points and 4.5 rebounds with 4.8 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.1 blocks per game last season. There aren’t many players stuffing the stat sheet like that, especially ones who are elite on both ends of the floor.
Want to see every NBA player born on July 2? Here is the rest of the list in chronological order:
- Bob Dille (1917)
- George Pearcy (1919)
- George Feigenbaum (1928)
- Larry Costello (1931)
- Rich Niemann (1946)
- Elvin Ivory (1948)
- Curtis Rowe (1949)
- Purvis Short (1957)
- Jim Lampley (1960)
- Jon Sundvold (1961)
- Clark Kellogg (1961)
- Andre Moore (1964)
- Maurice Martin (1964)
- Juaquin Hawkins (1973)
- Derrick White (1994)
- Marquese Chriss (1997)
- Isaiah Joe (1999)
