NBA Champion Foresaw Jon Scheyer Becoming Duke Basketball Head Coach

The night before Jon Scheyer and his third Duke basketball team tallied their 12th straight victory via Saturday's 88-63 road blowout over the Boston College Eagles, the Blue Devils appeared at TD Garden to show support for a handful of the program's former players in the Boston Celtics' 121-94 home win over the Orlando Magic.

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Celtics assistant Amile Jefferson, who was a 2015 national champion in Scheyer's early days as a Blue Devil assistant and served on his first-year staff in 2022-23, and Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum, who was a 2016-17 Duke basketball one-and-done before becoming an All-NBA sensation and 2024 champion, swiftly reciprocated that show of support.

They did so by recording the 50th all-time episode of The Brotherhood Podcast. And Tatum didn't hold back in singing the praises of Jon Scheyer, who now boasts a career 70-20 record at the helm in Durham as his No. 2-ranked Blue Devils (16-2, 8-0 ACC) sit squarely in the hunt for Duke's sixth national championship:

"I joke with Jon all the time that he tells me that he really shaped the player that I am today. And I tell him that, you know, his biggest claim is that he recruited me. And he became the head coach at Duke.

JT & Coach @JonScheyer go way back pic.twitter.com/zvBt4Hy0VS
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) January 21, 2025

"I think he came to watch me play in Milwaukee when I was, like, 15 — 15 or 16. And he recruited me throughout high school. And we were super close when I was at Duke. And still to this day, we're all in a group message. We talk to Jon, if not every day, every other day.

"And I could always see it when I was there. He was young. He was driven. He was motivated. And that's what you want to see in somebody that is gonna be a head coach one day. Obviously, he played the game. So, he has a feel for it. And just at the time, you could tell he was really eager to help the guys get better. Like, he just wanted the best for everybody that was on the team.

"I could trust him. That's a really big, important thing when you're going to college, playing for somebody that you feel like has your best interests, wants to push you to get better, wants what's best for the team, and you can trust him.

"And I think Jon has all of those qualities."

Ep. 5⃣0⃣ w/ the best player in the world!

S/O @jaytatum0 + @AmileJefferson

WATCH: https://t.co/bYVZeHKkRv #TheBrotherhoodPod 👿 pic.twitter.com/0wlshRmuMk
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) January 21, 2025

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