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For the second year in a row, the Duke Blue Devils are the No. 1 overall seed in the entire March Madness tournament.
It's been an impressive tenure so far for Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer, who led his team to a 35-3 overall record and the No. 1 overall seed in 2025 and followed that up with a 32-2 campaign and another No. 1 overall seed. Scheyer, who has been Duke's coach since 2022, has a team capable of winning it all this season.
Prior to his coaching career, which started as a Duke assistant under legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski in 2014, Scheyer played college basketball for the Blue Devils before going to the NBA. He played for the Miami Heat's Summer League team for just one season before suffering a career-altering eye injury.
Let's revisit Scheyer's short-lived NBA career and how his eye injury has affected his vision ever since.
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Is Jon Scheyer legally blind?
Yes, Jon Scheyer is legally blind in his right eye. It's the result of an injury he suffered during his 2019 season with the Miami Heat's Summer League team. During a game, Scheyer got poked in the eye by Joe Ingles of the Golden State Warriors.
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Jon Scheyer-Joe Ingles eye-poke incident
While playing in his second game during Miami's Summer League season in mid-July, Scheyer was poked in the right eye by Warriors guard Joe Ingles. Ingles was trying to make a swipe at the ball and poked Scheyer in the eye.
It resulted in a serious eye injury, resulting in a retinal tear and traumatic optic nerve avulsion, which affects his vision. As a result, Scheyer is legally blind in his right eye.
“I think it’s another example of how quickly you have to pivot or how quickly things change," Scheyer said on A Field of 68 podcast in September of 2023. 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 kind of a crazy deal. To this day I haven’t regained that vision, because it’s an optic nerve injury."
A New York Times piece in 2011 described Scheyer's eye injury as "one in a million" by doctors.
Scheyer suffered headaches and wore an eye patch while he recovered from his injury, eventually wearing goggles upon his return. After his recovery, he joined the Houston Rockets' D-League affiliate Rio Grande Valley Vipers midway through their 2011 season.
Scheyer played in 16 regular season games, averaging 13.8 points, 4.1 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game.
He went on to play internationally, signing a two-year deal to play for the EuroLeague's Maccabi Tel Aviv. He only played one season in Israel before signing with Gran Canaria of Liga ACB.
In 2014, he was hired as a special assistant to Coach K, which began his coaching career with the Blue Devils.
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Did Jon Scheyer get drafted?
No, Jon Scheyer did not get drafted by an NBA team. Despite playing for the Blue Devils from 2006-2010 and helping them win a national title in 2010, he went undrafted during the 2010 NBA Draft. He joined the Heat's 19-man Summer League team that year, then went on to play for the Rockets' D-League before playing two seasons internationally.
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Jon Scheyer college stats
Let's take a look back at Jon Scheyer's stats during his playing career at Duke.
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MORE:A look back at Jon Scheyer's Duke playing career