Jayson Tatum and Kyrie Irving both spent just one season at Duke — and the seasons were six years apart.
Now the two former Blue Devils will join up on the new-look Boston Celtics and Tatum is excited about it.
“I just know he’s excited,” Duke assistant Jon Scheyer said on The 4 Quarters Podcast after texting with Tatum, the No. 3 pick of the Celtics in the NBA Draft. “He’s a big fan of Kyrie. I just think he’s ready to go, ready for his opportunity and he’s anxious to get started.”
Scheyer won an NCAA championship with Duke in 2010 and joked about how he had to read all kinds of reports about Irving coming in to replace him.
“I’ve had a lot of respect for him for a long time,” Scheyer said of Irving, who was dealt to the Celtics on Tuesday night in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and a first-round pick in 2018. “It seems like a great trade for both teams. I know Jayson’s very excited about it, and he’s always had a lot of respect for Kyrie. I think it’s just now a matter of blending as a team. You have to put together the pieces of [Gordon] Hayward, I think Jayson’s going to be really good right away. So I’m excited to watch the team.”
