It was April 2022, and the Kentucky assistant coach was debating whether or not to depart one blue-blood basketball program for one more. He’d been provided a job at Duke, underneath first-time head coach Jon Scheyer.
As he known as his internal circle — together with head coaches equivalent to Marquette’s Shaka Sensible, Texas’ Rodney Terry and SMU’s Rob Lanier — he step by step realized the stakes. Duke hardly ever hires an assistant coach who didn’t play there; that hadn’t occurred in over 20 years. Plus, within the wake of Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement, Lucas knew he’d be getting in on the onset of a brand new period and the sort of profession springboard that may very well be. However was he actually going to depart Corridor of Famer John Calipari to work for a rookie head coach?
Torn, he known as the individual he knew would set him straight.
To the remainder of the world, John Lucas II is understood for being the No. 1 decide within the 1976 NBA Draft and later the top coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers. A veritable hoops icon. “In basketball circles,” Terry says, “you’re gonna know Massive John.”
However to Jai, that basketball legend had at all times been simply Dad. So he known as, spelling out his rationale in meticulous element. It wasn’t till Jai went silent that his father lastly spoke: “I don’t even know why you known as me. It appears like your thoughts’s already made up.”
Jai chuckles now, retelling the story from his fifth-floor Duke workplace. “That was the entire dialog,” he remembers. It was additionally all of the affirmation he wanted.
Jai took over Duke’s protection in 12 months 1 A.Ok. — After Krzyzewski — and orchestrated a top-20 unit nationally, per Ken Pomeroy’s rankings. Then in June, simply 14 months after Jai arrived, Scheyer promoted the 34-year-old to affiliate head coach, making him second-in-command for the nation’s second-ranked staff. “He at all times tells me the reality,” Scheyer stated this summer season, “and that’s what you want while you’re a head coach.”
If the Blue Devils play to their potential this season, that could be the place Jai finds himself quickly. However taking the Duke job wasn’t merely about skilled issues.
It was about household. Getting again to his roots. “The chance,” Jai says, “to sort of hold the identify legacy alive right here.”
Nearly 30 years later, Debbie Lucas’ one-liner nonetheless endures.
This was Philadelphia, March 1995, and John Lucas II’s spouse had simply returned residence from selecting up their daughter, Tarvia, after highschool basketball apply. John — in his first season teaching the 76ers — was watching TV together with his sons, John III and Jai. That’s when Debbie turned to her husband and stated:
“I feel I’ve seen a greater highschool basketball participant than you.”
Inconceivable. John had been Mr. North Carolina, breaking “Pistol” Pete Maravich’s state highschool scoring report whereas at Hillside Excessive Faculty in Durham. John earned greater than 300 school scholarship presents earlier than turning into an All-American in basketball and tennis at Maryland, after which the primary level guard ever drafted first total within the NBA. So the concept somebody was higher than that? “Excuse me,” John remembers considering, “however you’re out of your f—— thoughts.”
He needed to see. John loaded his sons into his spouse’s white Land Cruiser and drove to Decrease Merion Excessive Faculty, simply minutes earlier than that night time’s recreation. Strolling in, John noticed Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, considered one of his former NBA friends who was teaching at close by La Salle. He inquired why he was there that night time.
“To see my son play,” Jellybean responded. “His identify’s Kobe Bean.”
As in, Kobe Bean Bryant.
John and his sons took their seats, proper as Kobe — then a highschool junior — walked to midcourt for tip-off. “He received the bounce ball, he outran the massive, they threw the ball forward to him, and he did a windmill dunk,” John III, Jai’s older brother, remembers. “The primary play of the sport.”
That one recreation was all any of the Lucases wanted to see. John, recognizing the guard’s supreme expertise, invited Bryant to apply together with his 76ers. And as for the boys? “I say my love for basketball began then,” Jai says, “as a result of we lived 5 homes from Kobe.”
Bryant turned shut mates with Tarvia, the Decrease Merion staff supervisor, and like an older brother, of kinds, to John III and Jai, coming over for household dinner, swinging by within the morning earlier than 76ers apply to select up John, and even sneaking the boys onto the Decrease Merion bus for away video games, hiding them underneath dishevelled letterman jackets. “We’d been round, like, star gamers,” John III says, “however watching him as children, we’re like, oh, sh–.” Even for teenagers who realized the finger roll from George Gervin, who had had dinner with Michael Jordan and performed within the driveway with Larry Fowl, rising up in Bryant’s environment was transformative.
This, as a lot as something, was Jai’s introduction to basketball. Even at 6 years outdated, Jai watched every little thing Bryant did, soaking it in. It was one of many defining relationships of his life.
The others? Nicely, these had been again in Durham — the place the Lucases made their identify.
When John Harding Lucas returned from the Asiatic-Pacific Theater on the finish of World Conflict II, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than Hillside got here calling, hiring him as principal in 1962.
Earlier than desegregation and two years earlier than the Civil Rights Act, Hillside was one of many oldest Black excessive colleges within the South. It was John Sr.’s job to combine it. John nonetheless remembers picketers demonstrating outdoors his childhood residence on Fayetteville Avenue, throughout from well-known HBCU North Carolina Central College.
Earlier than lengthy, John Sr. turned a significant participant in desegregating not simply Hillside, however all of the state’s colleges. It was his thought to kind a brand new, built-in schooling group, quite than merging the 2 racially segregated ones that existed on the time. The North Carolina Affiliation of Educators (NCAE) was based in 1970 — desegregating Hillside whereas John II was attending. “The primary yr of integration was nearly integration in reverse,” he says. “Hillside was 90 p.c Black, 10 p.c White.” Already a budding basketball star by then, John’s Hillside staff performed Durham Excessive (a predominantly White faculty) at Cameron Indoor Stadium in one of many first built-in video games in state historical past.
After John left for Maryland, his father continued his mission; he was named the fourth president of the NCAE, and later interim president of Shaw College in Raleigh. John Sr. was additionally closely concerned within the contentious merger of Durham’s metropolis and county faculty techniques, which operated with separate — and racially aligned — funding till 1992. For his efforts, John Sr. earned a number of lifetime achievement awards — together with the celebrated N.C. Award for Public Service in 2013 — however one honor stands above the remainder:
Having a college, Lucas Center, named after him in 2012.
“If you grow old, that’s while you actually begin to understand it,” Jai says of his grandfather, now 102, who nonetheless lives lower than two miles from Duke’s campus. “He began to get all these awards and he began to get all this recognition, and then you definitely began to know his affect on the group.”
Each summer season, John introduced his youngsters again to Durham.
“It’s the place our household’s at. It’s our roots,” John III says. “It’s who my dad and mom are, it’s the place they arrive from. I feel Durham raised my dad and my mother — and also you always remember the place you come from.”
Durham, in a method, turned a reprieve from basketball. As a result of in every single place else? Be it in Philadelphia, Cleveland — the place John earned his third head-coaching job, 5 years after leaving the 76ers — or the household’s de facto residence base of Houston, hoops was the precedence.
Although Jai was too younger in Philadelphia to significantly practice with Bryant, within the years after the household left, he dedicated himself to basketball as relentlessly as his idol had. A few of that got here again in Houston, the place John let Jai be part of the NBA exercises he ran, as a part of his participant improvement and substance abuse clinic, John Lucas Enterprises. Extra got here in Cleveland, when Jai joined the Akron Taking pictures Stars AAU program, coached by LeBron James’ former highschool coach.
But it surely wasn’t till 2003, when John was fired by the Cavaliers and the household moved again to Houston, that Jai obtained the total expertise of being coached by his father.
At that time, Jai was coming into highschool. John wished to be there for his son — and so he took a break from the NBA (though execs continued to flock to Houston for his notorious conditioning and expertise coaching). “I informed him I wished to play,” Jai says, “after which he actually invested in me and my basketball.” John handled Jai identical to any of his execs. Instantly, teenage Jai was enjoying in opposition to the likes of T.J. Ford and Damon Stoudamire, two smaller but extremely profitable guards. John had achieved the identical factor with Jai’s older brother, John III — pitting him in opposition to execs, clipping on the edges of his consolation zone — however he instantly observed the distinction in his two sons’ method. “John had a Kobe mindset: Bravo-y, in your face,” their father says. “John’s gonna speak to you and inform you what’s going to go on with him; Jai’s simply gonna do the work.”
It didn’t take lengthy for John to understand that was simply his sons’ reverse personalities manifesting on the courtroom.
“I at all times used to get on Jai,” John III says, “like c’mon, you gotta let all people know who you might be — as a result of that’s how I performed. I used to be the smallest, so I felt like I at all times needed to be the loudest. However Jai’s quiet; his persona, how he’s now — in the true world — that’s how he performed.”
John attributes a number of the persona distinction between his sons to at least one particular a part of their upbringing: his drug use and subsequent restoration. John’s profession was marred by alcohol and medicines, a matter he’s been open about since getting sober within the late Eighties.
“My self-discipline by way of my restoration is what Jai knew, and my consideration to element. At all times conscious of my environment, at all times making an attempt to be accepting of others, believing in one thing larger than myself, and studying learn how to care about others unconditionally,” John says. “John noticed a unique dad, one which needed to decide himself again up. Jai simply noticed the opposite facet — the outcomes of selecting your self again up.”
The similarity, then, was in how John ready them each. How they’d go to the health club with their dad each morning, and never go away till they’d made 500 photographs. Jai’s father handled him like he would his NBA pupils. “He at all times informed me, at any time when we’re within the health club, I’m not Dad; I’m Coach,” Jai remembers. “Once we go away, I’ll be your dad once more.” It was intentional powerful love, from a person who knew how troublesome it was to realize basketball greatness.
“Jai and them hadn’t ever seen a troublesome day of their lives. I informed them, in case you’re going to play basketball, you’ve obtained to get an edge and a starvation. … These (different) children are combating,” John says. “So the aggressive degree you’ve obtained to get to, has to match them. And due to your final identify, each time you get on the market, their dad is telling them, ‘You measure your self by that Lucas boy; you kick his a–.”
So John at all times informed his sons one factor, the identical factor he’d realized from his father again in Durham:
“Shield the final identify.”
Jai Lucas, 34, was promoted to affiliate head coach earlier than his second season with Duke. (Lance King / Getty Pictures)
It was an offhand remark, facetious even, however one Jai took to coronary heart. He was at Rob Lanier’s home throughout his freshman yr at Florida, when Lanier — then an assistant on Billy Donovan’s employees — let it slip:
“I’m gonna rent you sooner or later … while you’re achieved enjoying in Switzerland,” Jai remembers Lanier saying. “I’ll always remember the assertion, as a result of I’m nonetheless considering I’m going to the NBA.”
It wasn’t a far-fetched thought. Jai had turned himself right into a top-25 nationwide recruit; per ESPN’s rankings, he was one spot behind Blake Griffin, and two forward of James Harden, within the Class of 2007. He arrived at Florida on the heels of consecutive nationwide titles by the Gators, and nearly instantly turned a starter. But Lanier already had an thought of the long-term path Jai was on.
“I assumed he would have a greater teaching profession than a enjoying profession, fairly actually,” Lanier says, “however that has extra to do with how good of a coach I assumed he may very well be.”
All of the issues that made Jai a gorgeous recruit and participant — regardless of his 5-foot-9 body — carried over to the teaching world. “In case you didn’t like Jai,” says Sensible, who briefly coached Jai at Florida, “then there was one thing mistaken with you, not him.” Emotionally, he was mature past his years. “He watches, he analyzes, he processes — after which he figures out an answer,” John III provides. “It’s very strategic.”
He additionally knew the sport. In his father’s health club in highschool, Jai was generally liable for educating drills to youthful gamers, tweaking their missteps and providing recommendation. John wasn’t certain his youngest son was taking to teaching — till Jai’s freshman yr of highschool, when he wore a swimsuit to his first fall league recreation, similar as his dad had within the NBA. “As a result of,” John says, “he respects the sport.” Jai was named to the SEC’s all-freshman staff that yr, regardless of the Gators lacking the NCAA Event.
Then, after his freshman season, Jai transferred nearer to residence, to Texas; Terry — then an assistant on Rick Barnes’ Texas employees — was his lead recruiter. He noticed in Jai what Lanier had. “Jai was at all times cerebral, ?” Terry says. “He wasn’t essentially the most athletic man, issues of that nature, however (his recreation) actually wasn’t about that.”
Jai barely performed his remaining two seasons at Texas — one begin in 58 appearances, and fewer than 12 minutes per recreation — however nonetheless pursued knowledgeable profession. His first cease was abroad, in Latvia. John knew Jai’s uphill climb to the NBA could be steep.
He gave the powerful recommendation solely a dad can: Perhaps it’s time to start out a brand new dream.
After which a name got here. It was Lanier, now at Texas. He was preserving his promise.
Jai re-joined the Longhorns as a particular assistant in 2013 and rapidly endeared himself to Barnes’ employees. When Lanier requested him for something, even one thing as small as a video cut-up of a participant, Jai did it precisely as instructed — regardless of by no means taking notes. “It at all times obtained achieved the way in which I requested it,” Lanier says. “At all times.” In 2015, Barnes left Texas for Tennessee, and Jai opted to remain, turning into the director of basketball operations on Sensible’s new employees in Austin. Earlier than lengthy, Jai’s connections began paying dividends on the recruiting path; Sensible promoted him to assistant in 2016, and Jai quickly helped UT land lottery skills like Jarrett Allen, Mo Bamba and Jaxson Hayes. In 2020, Kentucky provided Lucas its recruiting coordinator place.
Not even two years later, it was a battle of the blue bloods for Jai’s companies.
“With the ability to be selective on this enterprise is an actual luxurious, and he has that,” Lanier provides. “So he can actually be true to who he’s.”
Jai doesn’t take that without any consideration: that his cousins compete for Duke tickets, that they’re 10-deep behind the Cameron Indoor bench, that he’s liable to see a member of the family on any Goal run. However essentially the most particular connection of all of them? Jai’s 5-year-old son, Jaxin, spending time with John Sr., the household patriarch — bookends on 4 generations of Lucases.
Again in his workplace, Jai is requested if he looks like he’s earned a department of the household tree but. He pauses.
“Not but,” he lastly says. “I feel the branches on the tree have already been established … and my half is sort of like watering it. Simply ensuring I’m caring for it.”
(Illustration: Sean Reilly / The Athletic; images: Courtesy of the Lucas household; Lance King / Getty Pictures)
