Jon Scheyer: “I got poked in the eye and immediately lost all eyesight”
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer recently discussed his short but very eventful pro basketball career following going undrafted back in 2010.
(via The Field of 68):
“I think it’s another example of how quickly you have to pivot or how quickly things change. I was in Miami in their summer league camp when LeBron James went on camera and said, ‘I’m taking my talents to South Beach.’ I remember me and Shavlik Randolph were having dinner. He was on the team, and LeBron announced it. At some point, I don’t know if it was afterwards or before, Chris Bosh said he’s going to Miami. So I’m thinking, ‘Man, I’m gonna be teammates with LeBron. This is amazing!’ The first game of summer league I hit the game-winning shot. The second game, I got poked in the eye and immediately lost all eyesight. It was kinda a crazy deal. To this day I haven’t regained that vision, because it’s an optic nerve injury.
“So I went from at one moment thinking that was my path. A month later, I’m going to training camp with the Clippers, still my depth perception was coming back. I get released, and then you end up on this journey for three years, which really frankly was incredible. Playing against him (Robbie Hummel) in Spain. Played in Maccabi Tel Aviv for David Blatt, who’s a great coach and played all over the world. I played for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Played for a guy Chris Finch, and now Chris Finch is the head coach for the Timberwolves. And so those experiences really helped balance me to really understand, obviously Coach K and what he’s built at Duke, which I clearly believed in, but then to get other perspectives to add to it was a big deal for me.”
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