Dahntay Lavall Jones was born December 27, 1980, in Trenton, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Hamilton Square. Basketball ran in the family: his father Larry played at St. Peter’s College, and his cousin Al Harrington would play sixteen NBA seasons.
At Steinert High School in Hamilton Township, Jones became one of the most decorated players in Mercer County history. He scored a school-record 1,675 career points, averaged 24 points and 9 rebounds as a senior, earned first-team All-State honors, honorable mention McDonald’s All-America, and Prep High School Academic All-American status. He captained his team as both a junior and senior.
Duke recruited Jones out of high school, but Corey Maggette’s commitment closed that door. He enrolled at Rutgers. By his sophomore year, he was the Scarlet Knights’ best player — 16 PPG, 4.6 RPG, Big East All-Rookie honors as a freshman. But Rutgers was an NIT program and Jones said publicly that coach Kevin Bannon wasn’t helping him get better.
When Maggette left Duke after one season — the first Blue Devil to go to the NBA after a single year — the spot reopened. Jason Williams, Jones’s best friend from New Jersey, was already at Duke and helped seal the deal. Jones became Coach K’s second transfer ever, following Roshown McLeod five years earlier. He sat out the 2001 championship season but contributed in practice daily against Battier, Dunleavy, and Boozer.