Former Duke basketball star, and six-time NBA All-Star, Jayson Tatum returned to Cameron Indoor Stadium for Countdown to Craziness on Friday, Oct. 3.
Tatum was introduced by coach Jon Scheyer ahead of the annual Blue vs. White scrimmage. He sat courtside with Scheyer, his son Deuce, former Duke player and current Boston Celtics assistant Amile Jefferson and five-star recruits Jordan Smith Jr. and Cam Williams.
“There’s one more person we forgot to introduce, I think you guys are gonna know him, he’s somebody that’s going to be helping us this year,” Scheyer said.
It is unclear what Scheyer meant when he said Tatum was “going to be helping” the Blue Devils as neither he nor players were available to the media afterward. The Celtics forward suffered a torn achilles in May and is undergoing rehab, but his return timeline is unclear.
The Blue team won the scrimmage 34-24, with Isaiah Evans scoring a team-high nine points behind three 3-pointers within the 12-minute scrimmage. Nikolas Khamenia, Patrick Ngongba II, Darren Harris and Cameron Boozer each scored eight points.
Duke will play exhibitions vs. UCF (Oct. 21) and at Tennessee (Oct. 26) before officially starting its season on Nov. 4 against Texas as the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.
Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X, formerly known as Twitter.