Jon Scheyer, a Jewish star player at Duke who played for Maccabi Tel Aviv, will replace legendary Mike Krzyzewski as Duke coach
(JTA) — How do you follow a coaching legend?
Jon Scheyer, a one-time Jewish basketball star at Duke University who went on to play for the Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv, will find out soon enough.
Scheyer, 33, is the pick to succeed Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in Division 1 college basketball history, who said this week that he will be retiring after the 2021-22 season. Krzyzewski, known familiarly as “Coach K,” has guided the Blue Devils to five national championships, including in 2010 with Scheyer as a captain and an integral member on the court.
Scheyer has served as associate head coach at Duke for the past several seasons, returning to his alma mater to join the coaching staff in 2013.
The 6-5 guard, known in his playing days for his passing and scoring, along with his basketball intellect, played sparingly in his one season for Maccabi Tel Aviv after graduating from Duke and obtaining Israeli citizenship. He had gone undrafted by the NBA despite earning All-America status.
Scheyer, who hails from suburban Chicago, has a Jewish father and had a bar mitzvah. The story goes that when he visited the White House with Duke after winning the NCAA title, President Barack Obama, a huge basketball fan, referred to him as my “homeboy” from Chicago, having followed his high school career there. Scheyer reportedly called it the coolest moment of his life.
At Duke, he has been a key assistant for Krzyzewski, whose five national titles is second only to another legend, UCLA’s John Wooden.
Another ex-Duke star, Billy King, had some advice for Scheyer on replacing their mentor.
“Jon is prepared and ready for the challenge of his life,” said King, who played for the Blue Devils in the late 1980s and has gone to become an NBA executive. “He will have the support of the Duke brotherhood. He has to be Jon Scheyer and not Coach K. That will be his biggest challenge.”
King had this to say about Krzyzewski: “He was a leader who cared more about you as a person than a player. My career since Duke is a result of playing for him.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
