CHICAGO — Coby White spent the first five years of his NBA career trying to shake the “streaky” label.
It’s a frustrating moniker for any shooter. Getting hot goes hand in hand with getting cold. Fans, opponents and coaches always are waiting for the other sneaker to drop.
But White doesn’t want that. He isn’t content being a player who lives off runs. For the last two years, he has been molding himself toward a singular goal: exceptional reliability.
This season, the Chicago Bulls guard finally might have achieved that objective.
It came as no surprise Tuesday when White was named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for March. He played the best basketball of his career, notching a career-high 44-point game and averaging 27.7 points and 3.7 assists in 15 games.
White has scored 20 or more points in 16 of his last 17 games — including 15 in a row from Feb. 28 to March 29 — knocked down clutch baskets in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers and joined Zach LaVine as the only Bulls to record more than 400 points and 40 3-pointers in a month.
In the past, White has been known to heat up for a week or two of dazzling play. But this stretch has been too long to be considered a fluke.
Buried late in another mediocre season for the Bulls — who are returning again to the play-in tournament — a monthly award might seem easy to shrug off. But for White, this stretch of excellence reflects a yearslong process of building stability.
The consistency required for a player to stand out among his NBA peers for an entire month is an elite quality that Bulls rosters often have lacked. There’s a reason only five other players in franchise history have won the award, which debuted in the 1979-80 season: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler and DeMar DeRozan.
It’s a significant group to join — something White recognized and celebrated after receiving the award Tuesday morning. But he also is focused on what comes next.
“I’m not going to limit myself to anything,” White said. “I’m going to continue to get better, continue to be who I am and put my all into this game. Whatever happens after that happens.”
Coach Billy Donovan remembers his introduction to White in February 2020.
Technically, it was a second introduction. Donovan was coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who had played the Bulls earlier in the season. White blended into the wallpaper in that game, scoring only two points on six shots in a tightly contested Bulls loss.
His second impression was a bit stronger. White was in the middle of a furious stretch of scoring. He racked up his third straight 30-point game against the Thunder, finishing with 35 after sinking seven 3-pointers.
But Donovan wasn’t all that impressed.
“He was just scoring,” Donovan said. “That’s all he was doing.”
That was the standard scouting report on White during his first three years in the league: Even when playing his best, he was a one-dimensional player.
That’s the difference this season.
It’s not just that White is shooting at the most efficient clip of his career (44.9%) or that he’s making more 3-pointers (three per game) and averaging more points (20.4) than ever before. White finally is playing holistic basketball, fueling the Bulls with the type of well-rounded production necessary to keep this team afloat without LaVine.
And in the process, he has redefined himself to no longer be seen as streaky — or as just a scorer.
“So much of Coby when he first got into the league was all predicated on his scoring,” Donovan said. “As he’s grown, he’s figured out different ways to impact the group and impact winning besides just putting the ball in the basket.
“There’s been some games here, even after the All-Star break, where he hasn’t shot the ball particularly well ...
