Coby White soaks up Hornets Vs Bulls debut in return to United Center
Coby White made his Charlotte debut and returned to Chicago on Tuesday in a matchup labeled broadly as hornets vs bulls, and the game underscored how much of the Bulls he left behind: the Hornets beat the Bulls 131-99, handing Chicago its 10th straight loss.
CHICAGO — Clad in Charlotte Hornets purple, White inched toward the other bench and squinted down the sideline at what remained of the Chicago Bulls he blossomed with — and found it unrecognizable. Three weeks earlier he had been the longest-tenured Bull, the last trace of the GarPax era; on Tuesday many of his former teammates were scattered at the trade deadline, swapped for a band of repurposed former lottery talent that is stumbling down the standings and spiking Chicago’s lottery odds.
Hornets Vs Bulls at United Center
White chuckled as he described the scene: “It’s not weird, because I’m one of the ones that’s gone, ” he said after helping hand the Bulls a 131-99 loss, their 10th straight, on Tuesday. He beamed inside the United Center’s visiting locker room, which buzzed at a volume the home locker room down the hall had not matched all season. LaMelo Ball taunted him from the corner and Miles Bridges offered ad-libs for the scrum.
White’s Hornets debut: 10 points in 16 minutes
White broke down a 10-point, 16-minute Hornets debut, giddy with the atmosphere of a team that has won 12 of its last 15. He leaped to be part of it — so eager to play he forgot to remove his leg braces when he first checked in. He also gushed over rookie Kon Knueppel, calling him one of the two best shooters he’s ever played with.
A rebuilt Bulls roster and what White saw
After a few postgame hugs, White realized how much the nucleus he knew had been depleted at the trade deadline. He said that earlier in the season he and the Bulls had discussed extending their futures together, but the season’s trajectory changed that: “But, you know, things change, ” White said. “The way the season was going, (we) wasn’t really stacking enough wins consistently. ”
Trade fallout, injuries and the move to Charlotte
White’s move was finalized after a cascade of deals: Nikola Vučević and Kevin Huerter were dealt a day earlier, a shift White said only sealed his fate and that he “felt it in his gut. ” “You kind of read between the lines of what’s going on, ” he said. Long rumored as a trade asset because of his impending free agency, White was dealt to Charlotte for Collin Sexton, Ousmane Dieng (subsequently moved to the Milwaukee Bucks) and three second-round picks. The Hornets amended the trade upon delivery to retrieve one of the second-round pic
Narrow episodes from White’s time in Chicago also factored into the arc that ended with his departure: an April 2025 eruption that briefly suggested a potential star, then calf injuries that eroded valuable stretches of his contract year, and finally a Bulls roster that was dismembered and left stuck as Play-In threats before he was asked to deliver in a playoff series. White said he has taken mentorship lessons from Chris Paul — “The one thing I learned from (Chris Paul) is, him being one of my mentors, no matter what you’ve done on this team, when you go to a different team, you still gotta prove yourself to these guys. You still gotta show these guys that you could hoop, too. ”
What comes next in White’s Charlotte tenure and for the remade Bulls roster is unclear in the provided context.
