The next two seasons in the ABBL would be the pinnacle of Donnell White's career as an individual player. Something about the heightened level of competition lifted his game to a new standard, as he put up 25 PPG off 48.9 FG%, and 14.1 RPG in season 8. The rest of his game also improved, with a career high 71% FT and 3.1 assists for the season. At the end of the season, MVP voting was split between White, MJP's Raykundalia, and WA's Testoni, but in the end White won it with 140 points, 11 ahead of the other two. What a way to win his first MVP trophy! Drunken Masters finished the season 15-7 (#3 in Great 8) but struck out in the first playoff round against CoolCats, who went on to win the title. Despite being the league MVP, White struggled to get minutes in the national team in season 8 for some reason, and Australia finished 6th in the world cup with a tournament record of 3-6.
Season 9 was even better for White at an individual level; 26 PPG, 50.7% FG, 13.6 RPG, 3.7 APG, 1.4 BPG and a 13.3 average rating. For that he was awarded his 2nd ABBL MVP trophy almost unanimously. The Drunken Masters however, weren’t as good as a whole; 12-10 for the season and eliminated in the 1st playoff round by WA IS A DUMP. Meanwhile on the national team level, frustration continued for White in the Asian Cup, as he was locked in a fierce position battle against both veterans and up and coming prodgies. White finally got into the starting line-up against Hong Kong… only to lose the starting spot when the team lost that game. Later he’d lose his spot on the team altogether and could only watch in horror as China yet again destroyed Australia in the Asian Cup Final. In an infamous moment in Australian BB history, he hijacked the post-game press conference and spoke a piece of his mind… or ten.
But struggling to find a spot in the National team wasn’t even his biggest problem anymore. His biggest problem was his manager being missing in action. With no manager to draw-up game plans and manage his minutes, his overall production plummeted, and with that his chances of playing for the NT became zero. The manager never returned and White became a free agent, eventually signing for division II.2 Italian team Blue Sox for an earth shaking $3,825,000. It looked like a great chance for a fresh start for White, until he and the manager had a falling out. See, the manager wanted to tank for draft picks and requested that White come off the bench. White told the manager that he didn’t know any 2-time MVP that come off the bench, he didn’t know any 3.8 million dollar purchases that come off the bench, so why Donnell White? He didn’t like the tanking philosophy either, especially given that he wanted to play well so he could get back into the national squad. He would end up not playing another competitive BB game for 2 months.
With the Blue Sox insisting on not selling him to another team, Donnell White instead went back to Australia on paid leave. It gave him some time to think, and he realised that even if his national career hadn’t gone nearly the way he’d wanted it to, he still had 25 national caps. Most players never even get one. So he resolved to stop worrying about making the national team and just play basketball for fun from that day on. He went back and apologised to his manager for refusing to play, and the manager in turn would apologise to him for tanking the season. With the two of them sorting out their differences, Blue Sox was more than ready for the Season 11 Division III.15 campaign...
Last edited by Jay (OTT) at 4/30/2013 9:01:38 AM