Road to Duke
The Joneses of Charlotte were a Carolina family before they were a Duke family. Then their oldest son went to Duke. Then their daughter went to Duke. Then their youngest son finally came home to Duke too. By 2022, when Coach K was making his final coaching run at a national championship, the Jones family had three children in Duke uniforms — and a fourth at Davidson — and they were sitting in the front row of Cameron Indoor Stadium directly behind Mike Krzyzewski's family for his final home game.
Bates Jones was born March 14, 1999 in Charlotte, North Carolina, the youngest of four children of Steve and Becca Jones. He attended Charlotte Latin School in his hometown — the same elite prep school where his older brother Daniel had been a star athlete before him. The basketball pedigree at Charlotte Latin was real. Bates was a three-year letterwinner under Coach Chris Berger, was named CISAA All-Conference as a junior, averaged 15.7 points and 9.5 rebounds as a senior, and was selected Charlotte Observer Player of the Week multiple times. He was a member of the Headmaster's List academically.
But basketball wasn't his only sport. The bigger story at Charlotte Latin was that Bates Jones could also throw a football. He was an all-state quarterback as a senior, named team MVP, and led Charlotte Latin to the 2016 NCISAA State Championship — the football one. Six-foot-eight, 225 pounds, and he could play either sport at a high level. The basketball trajectory was the one that made sense for a frame that big. The football had been the family obsession.
Daniel Jones, two years older than Bates, had also played quarterback at Charlotte Latin before going to Duke as a quarterback. Daniel started for the Blue Devils for three years (2016-18), was a two-year captain, and left after his junior year. He was selected sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft by the New York Giants. He had grown up a Carolina Panthers fan in a family that, in his father's words, "leaned more Carolina than Duke because of their roots." Then Daniel committed to Duke and the family converted.
By the spring of 2017, Bates was a 6'8 senior with all-state football and all-conference basketball credentials. His college options were stronger in basketball than in football. He committed to Davidson — the small, academically prestigious, basketball-loved school in Davidson, North Carolina, where Steph Curry had become the most famous player in school history a decade earlier. Bates would play for Bob McKillop, the dean of Atlantic 10 coaches, learning the same pass-first, ball-movement offense that had launched Curry.
At Duke
The Davidson years were exactly what reserve careers look like at small Division I schools. Bates Jones played four years for the Wildcats from 2017-18 through 2020-21 and finished with 96 career games, 5 starts, 1.7 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. He scored his first college points at George Mason on January 7, 2018. He logged a personal-best 9 minutes in the 2017-18 season opener. He hit his first career three-pointer at North Carolina on December 29, 2018 — a moment of full-circle irony for a kid who'd grown up watching his father root against the Tar Heels.
The senior year of 2020-21 was his best. He started two of 22 games, averaged a career-best 2.6 points and 2.6 rebounds in 12.7 minutes, and shot 12-of-32 from three. The signature game came against Southern Virginia: 15 points, 8 rebounds, 54.5% from the field. Two weeks later in the Atlantic 10 Tournament against George Mason: 11 points and three made threes. Bob McKillop's pass-first system had given him the floor for one full senior year, and he had used it.
Then COVID-19 made him a fifth-year option. The NCAA's blanket eligibility waiver opened a window. Bates Jones, a redshirt senior, decided to use his extra year as a graduate transfer. The list of suitors was short. The most surprising name on it was Duke. Jon Scheyer, then Krzyzewski's coach-in-waiting, was the first to make contact. He had believed in Bates from the start. The pitch was simple: come home, get the Fuqua School of Business master's degree, and finish your basketball career on Mike Krzyzewski's last team.
Bates committed in April 2021. Duke had just lost Patrick Tape and Jaemyn Brakefield to transfer and Matthew Hurt to the NBA Draft. The Blue Devils needed depth in the frontcourt, and they needed a steady veteran in a freshman-heavy locker room. Bates was 6'8, 225 pounds, and a kid who knew how to lose graciously, work hard in practice, and make one more pass.
His Duke debut came against Army on November 12, 2021 — fittingly, the same school where Coach K had once been head coach. Bates hit a late three-pointer, grabbed a rebound, and played eight minutes. He scored three points each in the next two games against Campbell and Gardner-Webb. His best game came on December 14, 2021, against South Carolina State: seven points (4-of-4 from the line), three rebounds, and a career-high five assists in 15 minutes. He saw 14 minutes off the bench against Elon on December 18 with five points and four boards. He hit 2-of-2 three-pointers off the bench against Virginia on February 7, 2022. He went 2-of-2 from the floor and 1-of-1 from three for seven points against Texas Tech in the Sweet 16 on March 24, 2022.
But the moments that defined his Duke year weren't statistical. They were the family moments around them. Coach K's final home game on March 5, 2022 was the loss to North Carolina that ended the Cameron Indoor Stadium career of Mike Krzyzewski. The Joneses sat in the front row directly behind Coach K's family during the emotional ceremonies. "You watch everyone start coming out and Coach K's family sat right in front of us and we were like, 'We could be part of the shot here for sure,'" Daniel Jones told ESPN. The cameras kept finding them. Steve and Becca on either side of their youngest child, Ruthie. Daniel — the Giants' starting quarterback — on the other side of his mother. Bates on the floor in the postgame ceremony. The family that had once leaned Carolina was, in Steve's own words, "completely converted." Daniel: "I think it has been cool. We've been lucky in a lot of ways."
A month later, Bates traveled with the team to the Final Four in New Orleans. The Joneses got front-row seats — because as a fifth-year senior, Bates had the most family ticket seniority on the roster. Daniel flew in for the UNC semifinal Saturday, planned to fly back to New Jersey early Monday for the start of the Giants' offseason program, and then fly back to New Orleans for the title game that night. Then in practice in New Orleans, Bates stopped by the Saints facility and showed off the throwing arm that had won Charlotte Latin a state football championship — a 60-plus yard throw caught on Theo John's Instagram. The internet briefly nicknamed him Uncle Rico.
The Coach K career ended that Saturday night with the Final Four loss to Carolina. Bates Jones finished his Duke season with 27 games, 1.4 points, and 1.1 rebounds per contest. He had been a footnote on the box score and a frontline witness to the most-photographed retirement in college sports history.
Bates graduated from Duke's Fuqua School of Business with a master's in management studies in May 2022. He was 23 years old, sitting on a Davidson degree, a Fuqua master's, four years of A-10 basketball, and one year on Coach K's last team. The next decision was already made for him.
After Duke
Coach K had a recommendation. He told Bates Jones to stay another year as a graduate assistant. Jon Scheyer, who would now be the head coach himself, made the call to keep Bates on staff and start working on a Duke MBA at the same time. The arrangement was unusual — most graduate assistants are aspiring coaches, not finance students — but the Jones family did things together. Daniel was in his fourth year with the Giants. Ruthie was finishing her women's soccer career at Duke. Bates would spend one more year in Cameron Indoor, this time on the bench in a polo, before deciding what came next.
The 2022-23 season was Jon Scheyer's first as Duke's head coach. Bates Jones was on the bench, helping run the scout team in practice, playing one-on-one with 7'1 freshman Dereck Lively II to teach him post moves, helping Mark Mitchell with his jump shot, working out with Kyle Filipowski. Coach K had passed him the ball on the practice floor; now he was passing the ball to the next class of Duke big men.
The Coach K passing-the-ball moment had become Bates's defining memory of his playing year. Greg Mason of the USA Today network captured the story: in his second summer practice at Duke, Bates had played well, hitting threes and drawing Coach K's attention. The next day, he started passing up shots, reverting to what he'd been taught at Davidson — always make one more pass if you can. Coach K got after him about it. The lesson was clear: when the ball is passed to you at Duke, you shoot. Bates accepted the graduate assistant role partly because of that moment. Coach K had passed him the ball and given him an opportunity. He took the shot.
Scheyer captured it directly in February 2023: "Having him around for an extra year has been a bonus for me. It's been a bonus for us. And we'll see what his future holds. He can do many things. But we're really fortunate that we could have him stay for another year."
Bates's response: "I'm just super grateful for Coach K giving me his vote of approval and Coach Scheyer letting me be a part of his first team."
In May 2023, Bates Jones graduated from Fuqua with his MBA. The Davidson degree, the Duke management studies master's, and the Duke MBA all in the same family closet. He moved to New York to begin his post-basketball career as a Private Equity Analyst at Cerberus Capital Management — one of the world's largest alternative-asset managers, with more than $60 billion under management.
Where Is He Now
Jones is a Private Equity Analyst at Cerberus Capital Management in New York City, where he's worked since completing his Duke MBA at the Fuqua School of Business in May 2023. The career arc that began with an all-state quarterback prep school championship, ran through four years of Davidson basketball, finished with one season on Mike Krzyzewski's final team, and continued for a year as Jon Scheyer's first graduate assistant, has now landed in Manhattan finance. His older brother Daniel is currently the starting quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts after stops with the Giants and Vikings. His younger sister Ruthie graduated as a four-year Duke women's soccer goalkeeper. His older sister Becca completed a four-year field hockey career at Davidson. The Joneses of Charlotte have placed three children at Duke and one at Davidson — and the youngest, Bates, is the only one to have done both. The Cameron Indoor lights are New York skyline lights now. The shot Coach K told him to take has paid more than threes.