Road to Duke
Cameron Elijah Reddish was born on September 1, 1999, in Norristown, Pennsylvania, a working-class suburb northwest of Philadelphia. His father, Robert Reddish, played college basketball at Virginia Commonwealth University. His mother, Zanthia, raised Cam and his younger brother Aaron in a household where basketball was the heartbeat. Robert knew his son would play in the NBA when Cam was four years old, doing things with a basketball that eight-year-olds couldn’t do.
Cam played varsity basketball as an eighth-grader and freshman at the Haverford School on Philadelphia’s Main Line, then transferred to Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Westtown was a 600-acre Quaker boarding school with rigorous academics and a basketball coach named Seth Berger — the founder of And1, the iconic streetball shoe and apparel company. Robert Reddish knew Berger because he had coached Berger’s son T.J. in AAU. At Westtown, Cam teamed with two other future NBA players: 6’11 center Mohamed Bamba and 6’6 shooting guard Brandon Randolph. Together they won back-to-back Friends’ School League championships and Pennsylvania Independent Schools state titles.
By his senior year, Reddish averaged 22.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, was named Mr. Pennsylvania Basketball, and was selected for the McDonald’s All-American Game, the Jordan Brand Classic, and the Nike Hoop Summit. On the Nike EYBL circuit the previous summer, he had averaged 23.8 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 3.1 assists for Team Final. Kevin Durant, watching Reddish’s highlights on his YouTube channel, said simply: I like this kid, man. He’s going to be a star.
Reddish was the third-ranked recruit in the Class of 2018 by both ESPN and 247Sports. He chose Duke over Connecticut, Kentucky, Villanova, and UCLA. I knew from the jump I wanted to go there, he said. His mother, Zanthia, described the process: We visited all the schools together. We had countless conversations. Lots of prayer. When he decided it was Duke, we said Duke it is. At Duke, he would join fellow top-three recruits RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson to form the most hyped freshman class in college basketball history.
At Duke
Reddish’s freshman season at Duke in 2018–19 was defined by being the third star on a team that had two transcendent ones. Zion Williamson was the most exciting player in college basketball. RJ Barrett was the most prolific scorer. Reddish was the silky 6’8 wing who was supposed to be the third piece of the puzzle — the versatile scorer who could stretch the floor and create his own shot.
He debuted with 22 points in Duke’s 118–84 demolition of Kentucky at the Champions Classic. He scored 25 against Army, 24 against Boston College, and 22 in a comeback win over Louisville. On January 12, 2019, he hit a game-winning three-pointer in the final seconds as Duke stunned Florida State in Tallahassee. Over 36 games, he averaged 13.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.9 assists.
The shooting was inconsistent — 33 percent from three, 35.6 percent from the field overall — and Reddish would later acknowledge that playing alongside two ball-dominant stars limited his rhythm. People mistake the smoothness of my game for a lack of motor, he said. I went to Duke to grow and prepare for the NBA, and I did that. Duke reached the Elite Eight before falling to Michigan State when Zion’s shoe exploded in a loss to North Carolina that became one of the most replayed moments in college basketball history.
On draft night — June 20, 2019 — Duke made history for only the second time ever: three players from one school taken in the top ten of a single draft. Zion went first overall to New Orleans. Barrett went third to New York. Reddish went tenth to Atlanta. The last time it had happened was Florida in 2007. The Zion-RJ-Cam class remains the gold standard for one-and-done recruiting.
After Duke
The Atlanta Hawks selected Reddish with the tenth overall pick. His rookie year showed flashes — he averaged 10.5 points per game and showed the defensive versatility that scouts had loved — but injuries began to accumulate. A core muscle injury, a right Achilles strain, and an abdominal issue limited his availability. In January 2022, the Hawks traded him to the New York Knicks.
In New York, the promise seemed to renew itself briefly. But the Knicks traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers, who waived him. He signed with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2023–24 season under JJ Redick — a fellow Duke alumnus — and appeared in 58 games, averaging 4.4 points. In the summer of 2025, Reddish signed with Siauliai of the Lithuanian Basketball League, his first stint overseas. He left the team in December by mutual agreement for personal reasons and returned to the United States.
In January 2026, Reddish was assigned to the Austin Spurs of the NBA G-League, then traded to the San Diego Clippers. At twenty-six years old, the tenth overall pick in the 2019 draft — the kid Kevin Durant had called a star, the third member of Duke’s most celebrated freshman class — is playing in the G-League, fighting to get back to the NBA.
Where Is He Now
Cam Reddish is currently playing for the San Diego Clippers of the NBA G-League. He has earned approximately $30 million in his NBA career across five teams and five seasons. He has never stopped working. He has never stopped believing that the talent that made Kevin Durant call him a future star, that made him the third-ranked recruit in America, that put him in the top ten of the NBA Draft alongside Zion and RJ, is still inside him.
Back in Norristown, Reddish has never forgotten where he came from. In 2021, while playing for the Atlanta Hawks, he and the Reddish Family Foundation hosted a food drive and donated $10,000 to the municipality of Norristown. He calls basketball his heartbeat. His favorite player growing up was Allen Iverson — the Philadelphia legend, the Norristown connection, the player who played with a chip on his shoulder and an answer for everyone who doubted him.
Cam Reddish was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, the son of a VCU basketball player who knew his boy would be an NBA player when Cam was four years old. He played at Westtown School for the founder of And1, winning back-to-back state championships alongside Mohamed Bamba. Kevin Durant watched his highlights and said he was going to be a star. He chose Duke and joined Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett to form the most celebrated freshman class in college basketball history. He hit a game-winning three at Florida State. He was drafted tenth overall — the third top-ten pick from one school in one draft, something that had happened only once before in the history of the NBA. He has played for five NBA teams. He went to Lithuania and came home. He is now in the G-League, twenty-six years old, fighting to get back. His father knew at four. Kevin Durant said it on YouTube. The smoothness was always there. The motor was always there. People mistook one for the absence of the other. Cam Reddish is still playing basketball, because basketball is his heartbeat, and a heartbeat does not stop just because the arena gets smaller.