Duke basketball: Amile Jefferson leaving Blue Devils for Boston Celtics

Duke basketball assistant coach Amile Jefferson is leaving the Blue Devils. 

Major news has hit the Duke basketball coaching staff just days before the program was slated to begin offseason workouts.

Blue Devil assistant coach Amile Jefferson is leaving Durham to join the Boston Celtics coaching staff, Travis Branham of 247Sports reported.

Jefferson joined Duke’s coaching staff as the team’s director of player development under Mike Krzyzewski in 2021, and following the official promotion of Jon Scheyer to head coach he elevated the 2015 National Champion to an assistant coaching position.

The 6-foot-9 forward played at Duke for five seasons where he became the leader in all-time games played (150), surpassing Christian Laettner.

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Amile Jefferson averaged 7.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per contest in his Blue Devil career.

Following his time at Duke, Jefferson tried to carve out a role for himself in the NBA and played 30 games over the course of two seasons with the Orlando Magic but spent a majority of his time in the NBA G-League.

The Philadelphia native signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Boston Celtics in 2020 but was waived two weeks later and never played in a game for the organization.

Duke basketball needing to fill massive hole

The departure of Amile Jefferson puts a massive hole in how the Duke coaching staff operates.

Not only did Jefferson provide a major impact on the floor for Blue Devil players but he was also evolving into an elite recruiter for Jon Scheyer and had a major impact in landing Class of 2024 5-star recruit Isaiah Evans.

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Jefferson gets to reunite with one of his closest friends in Boston, Jayson Tatum, as the two often are together in the offseason and played together with Duke during the 2016-17 season.

Scheyer now has a spot to fill on his coaching staff and there have been rumors circulating about the potential of William Avery, a former Blue Devil standout, joining the staff.