Jon Scheyer appeared on Jon Rothstein’s podcast, Inside College Basketball Now, recently, and spoke about why he chose to stay at Duke instead of leaving for the Dallas Mavericks, where he could have coached former Duke star Cooper Flagg again.
Of course, he chose not to, and on the podcast, he said that it was because of unfinished business at Duke. He also pointed out that he has now lived in Durham longer than he did in his hometown of Chicago, which probably changes his perspective.
However, while
he called Duke his “dream job” and pointed out that most people in his profession don’t get their dream jobs at 33, what he did not say — and what this article suggests — is that Duke is a better job than the Dallas Mavericks.
Duke has become a powerful, worldwide brand. You may remember that Khaman Maluach watched Zion Williamson clips on his phone in a refugee camp. Christian Laettner’s shot against Kentucky is on March Madness broadcasts nearly every year, and Amazon Prime picked Duke to partner with in part because of its global appeal.
So it’s quite possible that Duke has become not just the face of college basketball, but on par with, and in many cases well beyond, most NBA teams.
The Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Chicago Bulls all have identities that are global, but Duke is not far behind.
And you know who really hates that? Besides Kenny Smith?
UConn coach Dan Hurley.
For all of his accomplishments, Duke is still well past UConn in this regard. It’s pretty clear that Hurley has issues with the Blue Devils, that he sees the program as sort of his great white whale to pursue, and this is likely eating at him.
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