Former Wildwood Catholic star signs with G League team

Posted: December 11th 2025

Wildwood Catholic graduate Jahlil White in action with LaSalle last season. (photo from LaSalle University athletics website)

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

Jahlil White missed an important phone call while he was working out in a gymnasium in Conshocken, Pa., Monday evening.

As soon as he returned the call, he found out he had earned an opportunity to become a professional basketball player.

White, a former star player at Wildwood Catholic Academy, has been signed by the OKC Blue, the G League affiliate of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, the team announced earlier this week.

“It was a call from my old agent,” White explained by telephone from Oklahoma City. “He said, ‘Are you in shape and ready to go, because Oklahoma City wants to sign you, and they need you to fly out as soon as possible.’”

Less than 24 hours later, White arrived in Oklahoma City to sign his first professional contract with the Blue. He participated in practice on Wednesday and a shootaround Thursday morning, and is expected to be in uniform for tonight’s home game against the Birmingham Squadron.

JAHLIL WHITE

White, a 6-7 guard/forward, had been in contact with a professional team in Greece last summer but couldn’t come to a contract agreement, according to Dave DeWeese, his high school coach at Wildwood Catholic.

Instead, White focused on trying to play domestically in the G League, a 31-team setup that serves as a developmental league for the NBA. He was not selected in the G League Draft in late October but eventually worked out for G League affiliates of the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and the Thunder.

“Oklahoma City really liked him,” DeWeese said. “He went out and worked out for them twice. They stayed in communication with him and they told him they were just waiting for a roster spot to open up.”

That roster spot became available this week when Malevy Leons was signed off the OKC Blue roster to a two-way contract by the Golden State Warriors. OKC Blue quickly signed White in the wake of that move.

“This is everything I’ve worked for up until this day,” White said. “It still feels a little surreal at this moment just because of how quickly this all happened. I was hoping they’d take me in the G League Draft … But when that didn’t happen I never got too down on myself. I told myself it’ll happen when God’s ready for it to happen. It was such a blessing to get that call.

“I feel like I’m 100 percent ready for this.”

White played college basketball first at Temple and later at LaSalle. He sat out his first season with the Owls due to a knee injury before playing three seasons in the program. In his final season at Temple as a redshirt junior, White averaged 10.1 points and 5.5 rebounds. He graduated from Temple with a bachelor’s degree in advertising and marketing in May 2024.

With one year of eligibility remaining, White transferred to LaSalle ahead of the 2024-25 season and averaged 9.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for the Explorers as a graduate student. He earned a master’s degree from LaSalle in strategic communications last spring.

White had been living in the Philadelphia area after his graduation from LaSalle. He said he was working as a delivery driver for Door Dash while also living off of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) money he had earned as a college player. That gave him plenty of time to continue to work on his game and stay in the best shape possible in case a professional team came calling.

Now that he has earned the chance to play professionally in the G League, White is determined to make the most of the opportunity.

“I think the most important thing right now is to take it day by day,” White said. “You can find yourself thinking too far ahead about what can happen and a lot of stuff can go through your head. I learned in college to appreciate every moment and be where your feet are.”

As a high school player, White was one of the leaders of a Wildwood Catholic team that enjoyed the greatest stretch of success in the program’s modern history. The 2020 graduate teamed with fellow eventual Division I player Taj Thweatt, who’s on the roster at Coppin State but is currently injured, and others to help the Crusaders to three straight Cape-Atlantic League playoff tournament titles (2018-2020), as well as the 2020 South Jersey Non-Public B championship. Wildwood Catholic never got to play in the state title game that year after all high school sports were shut down due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A career 1,000-point scorer as a high school player, White averaged 16.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.4 steals as a senior for the Crusaders.

White is the second player with Cape May County ties to sign with a G League team. North Wildwood native Jordan Hall, who played his freshman season at Middle Township High School before moving to Philadelphia, has played for four different G League teams in recent years after a productive college career at St. Joseph’s University. Hall reached the NBA briefly in 2022-23, playing nine games with the San Antonio Spurs. He’s currently on injured reserve in the Dallas Mavericks organization after suffering an ankle injury over the summer.