There are 24 members of The Brotherhood on the Duke men’s basketball team’s opening-day rosters, coinciding with the NBA’s Opening Night on Tuesday night.
The Blue Devils have players at eighteen different teams. These teams include two each in Atlanta (AJ Griffin and Jalen Johnson), Orlando (Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr.), Brooklyn (Harry Giles and Dariq Whitehead), New Orleans (Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson), and Dallas Mavericks (Kyrie Irving, Seth Curry, and Dereck Lively II).
A year after winning NBA Rookie of the Year, Banchero—Duke’s fifth-ever overall No. 1 pick—saw himself average 20.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and shoot.427 from the field with the Magic.
There are two regular-season games between brothers Tre and Tyus Jones, who play for San Antonio and Washington, respectively.
This season will mark the NBA debuts of Lively and Whitehead, Duke’s two first-round selections from the 2022–23 team. Lively scored 6.0 points, pulled down 5.0 rebounds, and blocked 1.8 shots per game in the preseason while averaging 20.4 minutes. Having recovered from his off-season foot surgery, Whitehead—the third-youngest player in the NBA this season—has advanced to live-action rehab.
The two dozen NBA players from Duke also add their names to the vast list of former players, managers, coaches, and Duke alums who work for 26 of the 30 clubs in the NBA, as well as the league office, as front office staff members or coaches. These include 1984 Duke graduate Adam Silver (NBA Commissioner), Grant Hill (part owner of the Atlanta Hawks), Elton Brand (general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers), Trajan Landon (general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans), Quin Snyder (head coach of the Atlanta Hawks), and Mike Dunleavy (general manager of the Golden State Warriors). Former Hall of Fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski joined the NBA this summer as a special advisor.
Blue Devils in the NBA
- Grayson Allen – Phoenix
- Marvin Bagley III – Detroit
- Paolo Banchero – Orlando
- RJ Barrett – New York
- Marques Bolden – Milwaukee
- Wendell Carter Jr. – Orlando
- Seth Curry – Dallas
- Harry Giles III – Brooklyn
- AJ Griffin – Atlanta
- Brandon Ingram – New Orleans
- Kyrie Irving – Dallas
- Jalen Johnson – Atlanta
- Tre Jones – San Antonio
- Tyus Jones – Washington
- Luke Kennard – Memphis
- Dereck Lively II – Dallas
- Wendell Moore Jr. – Minnesota
- Mason Plumlee – LA Clippers
- Cam Reddish – LA Lakers
- Jayson Tatum – Boston
- Gary Trent Jr. – Toronto
- Dariq Whitehead – Brooklyn
- Mark Williams – Charlotte
- Zion Williamson – New Orleans
