After his redshirt junior season, he declared himself eligible for the 1999 NBA draft with one year of collegiate eligibility remaining, making him the first Missouri Tiger to declare early for the NBA draft. Although some speculated that he was making a mistake declaring early for the draft, he had the burden of child support and some projected him as a likely draft selection. White went undrafted in the NBA draft after surrendering his final year of eligibility. However, that year some other early draft entrants met with better success: the first four selections (Elton Brand, Steve Francis, Baron Davis, and Lamar Odom) also had surrendered some remaining collegiate eligibility by declaring themselves eligible to be drafted in the NBA draft and high schoolers Jonathan Bender and Leon Smith were drafted in the first round. Many other underclassmen in his draft year such as Ron Artest, Richard Hamilton, and Corey Maggette have gone on to have successful NBA careers.