William McDowell-White (born 13 April 1998) is an Australian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

New Zealand Breakers The New Zealand Breakers (also known as the Sky Sport Breakers for sponsorship reasons) are a New Zealand professional basketball team based in Auckland. The Breakers compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at ...

of the National Basketball League (NBL). He debuted in the NBL in 2016 with the

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The Kings were formed from a merger between the West Sydney Westars and the ...

before playing two seasons in Germany and then two seasons in the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. He joined the Breakers in 2021.

Early life and career

McDowell-White was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, into a family of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

(

Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...

) descent. His father,

Darryl White Darryl White (born 12 June 1973) is an Australian rules footballer whose career with the Brisbane Bears and Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL) lasted from 1992 to 2005. An Indigenous Australian, in 2005 he was named at fullback in t ...

, played

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

for the Brisbane Bears/Lions, where he won three

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

premierships. McDowell-White grew up playing Australian rules football for

Coorparoo Coorparoo is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Coorparoo had a population of 16,282 people. Geography Coorparoo is by road south-east of the Brisbane GPO. It borders Camp Hill, Holland Park, Stones Corner ...

and was placed in the Brisbane Lions talent academy at the age of 13. At age 15, he decided to focus on basketball. In 2014 and 2016, McDowell-White played in the

SEABL The South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) was an Australian semi-professional basketball league. The league comprised both a men's and women's competition and was run by the country's governing body, Basketball Australia. The league wa ...

for the Brisbane Spartans. He re-joined the Spartans in 2017 with their move to the QBL. After failing to get academically eligible to play for the

Fresno State Bulldogs The Fresno State Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent California State University, Fresno (commonly referred to as Fresno State). The university is a member of NCAA Division I's Mountain West Conference (MW). It was a ...

in 2016, McDowell-White returned to Australia.

Professional career

Sydney Kings

In December 2016, McDowell-White joined the

of Australia's NBL as a development player for the rest of the 2016–17 season.

Brose Bamberg / Baunach Young Pikes

McDowell-White signed a four-year deal with

Brose Bamberg Brose Bamberg is a German professional basketball team from Bamberg, Franconia / North Bavaria. The club has won the German Championship title nine times and the German Cup five times. The club currently plays in the German top tier Basketba ...

, of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

, which is Germany's top division, in July 2017. He was later assigned to

Baunach Young Pikes Baunach Young Pikes is a German professional basketball club, that is based in Baunach. It is the basketball section of the multi-sports club 1. FC Baunach. The team currently plays in the ProA, the German national second division. The club has ...

, the

farm team In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

of Brose Bamberg, for the 2017–18 season's German 2nd Division season. He was recalled to

, on 17 December. In the 2017–18 season, while playing for Baunach, he was named the ProA Young Player of the Year. After testing the waters for the

2018 NBA draft The 2018 NBA Draft was held on June 21, 2018, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including inte ...

, McDowell-White returned to Brose Bamberg for the 2018–19 season. He spent most of the season with Baunach again. In May 2019, McDowell-White had a one-game stint with the Southern Districts Spartans in the QBL.

Rio Grande Valley Vipers and RedCity Roar

After failing to be drafted in the 2019 NBA draft, McDowell-White signed an Exhibit-10 contract with the

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

, and would go on to play for the Rockets in the 2019 NBA Summer League. He later had his contract converted to a

two-way Two-way or Two Way may refer to: * " 2-Way", single by rapper Lil' Romeo * Two-way, Cincinnati chili topped on spaghetti * "Two Way" (KT Tunstall and James Bay duet), 2016 See also * * * * 3-Way (disambiguation) {{Disambiguation ...

deal, a decision that was later reversed. On 27 September, McDowell-White was waived by the Rockets to make room on their training camp roster for Ryan Anderson. McDowell-White was then added to the roster of the Rockets'

affiliate, the

Rio Grande Valley Vipers The Rio Grande Valley Vipers are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Edinburg, Texas, and are affiliated with the Houston Rockets. The Vipers play their home games at the Bert Ogden Arena. The Vipers have won f ...

. He suffered an injury in November and was inactive for several weeks. McDowell-White played for the RedCity Roar of the Queensland State League during the 2020 season. McDowell-White turned down multiple offers from NBL teams to return to the NBA G League for the 2020–21 season. After another quick stint with the Rockets in December 2020, he played for the Vipers in the G League hub season between February and March 2021.

New Zealand Breakers

On 13 March 2021, McDowell-White signed with the

. On 16 April 2021, he recorded 13 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds in a 91–71 win over the

Brisbane Bullets The Brisbane Bullets are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) based in Brisbane, Brisbane, Queensland. They competed from 1979 to 2008, and returned to th ...

. He became just the second player in Breakers' history to record a triple-double, joining

Cedric Jackson Cedric Lamar Jackson (born March 5, 1986) is an American former professional basketball player. He played two years of college basketball for Cleveland State University, where he made a notable game-winning full-court shot against Syracuse and hel ...

. On 26 June 2021, McDowell-White re-signed with the Breakers for the 2021–22 NBL season. On 25 May 2022, McDowell-White re-signed with the Breakers for the

2022–23 NBL season The 2022–23 NBL season was the 45th season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of ten teams contested in the 2022–23 season. Australian broadcast rights to the season are held by ESPN in the second sea ...

. On 11 April 2023, McDowell-White re-signed with the Breakers on a two-year deal. He missed the start of the 2023–24 NBL season with a hand injury. On 17 November 2023, he was ruled out for six weeks with a fractured

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

National team career

In 2013, McDowell-White represented Australia at the

FIBA Oceania Under-16 Championship The FIBA Oceania Under-15 Championship is an under-15 basketball championship in the International Basketball Federation's Oceania zone. Since 2018, the competition previously known as FIBA Oceania Under-16 Championship, which was a qualifier f ...

. Two years later, he played for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

at the

2015 FIBA Under-19 World Championship The 2015 FIBA Under-19 World Championship (Greek: Παγκόσμιο Πρωτάθλημα FIBA Under-19 2015) was the 12th edition of the FIBA U19 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by th ...

. In June 2022, McDowell-White was named in the Boomers' World Cup Qualifiers team.

References

External links

NBA G League profileEuroleague.net profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McDowell-White, William 1998 births Living people Australian expatriate basketball people in Germany Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States Australian men's basketball players Basketball players from Brisbane Baunach Young Pikes players Bamberg Baskets players Indigenous Australian basketball players New Zealand Breakers players Point guards Rio Grande Valley Vipers players Shooting guards Sydney Kings players Sportsmen from Queensland