Road to Duke
Jacob Grandison's path to Duke touched four schools across three states, two countries, and a sport that wasn't basketball. Before he ever picked up a ball in competition, he was a competitive swimmer — racing the 50-meter freestyle for the Oakland Undercurrents and qualifying for Junior Olympics. The kid from Oakland, California could have been a swimmer. Instead, he became one of the most well-traveled players in college basketball history.
Born on April 2, 1998, in San Francisco to an African-American father and a Swedish-speaking Finnish mother from Helsinki, Grandison grew up in Oakland with dual U.S.-Finnish citizenship — a detail that would define the second act of his career. His uncle, Anthony Grandison, played football at Cal. Basketball ran in the family, but the path to it was turbulent. At Berkeley High School, Grandison started on JV as a sophomore before moving to varsity, but he later left the program due to what he described as an unsafe coaching environment. He trained privately with Chris Garlington at Overtime Sports Academy before being spotted by Team Lillard — Damian Lillard's Adidas-sponsored AAU squad — which gave Division I coaches their first look at him.
He took a post-graduate year at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, the same kind of East Coast prep school pipeline that produced Max Johns at Woodberry Forest. At Exeter, he led the Exonians to the NEPSAC Class A championship, scoring 20 points in the title game and earning tournament MVP. He also lettered in volleyball, because of course he did.
Exeter opened the door to Holy Cross, where Grandison played two seasons under coach Bill Carmody. As a sophomore, he averaged 13.9 points per game — 11th in the Patriot League — with a career-high 25 points against Iona and a 22-point, 16-rebound double-double against Lafayette. He was becoming a legitimate mid-major star. Then he transferred to Illinois, sat out a year under the old transfer rules, and emerged as a key contributor on the 2020-21 Fighting Illini team that won the Big Ten Tournament. He scored a combined 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting across the three tournament games. As a senior in 2021-22, he started 23 of 30 games and shot .415 from three — the kind of perimeter shooting that makes coaches salivate. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Illinois before using his COVID bonus year of eligibility to transfer one more time.
At Duke
"We love the experience and high-level basketball that Jacob brings to our 2022-23 roster," Scheyer said when Grandison committed. "He is battle-tested with a high IQ for the game and a very good shooter." At 24, Grandison was the oldest player on a Duke roster loaded with teenage freshmen — Filipowski was 18, Lively was 18, Whitehead was 18. Grandison had been playing college basketball since they were in eighth grade.
He appeared in all 36 games, playing 15.8 minutes per contest off the bench. He was the veteran wing, the designated shooter, the player Scheyer trusted to come in cold and not waste a possession. He averaged 4.4 points on .404 shooting overall and .337 from three — solid efficiency for a role player on a team that went 27-9 and won the ACC Tournament. Against Virginia on the road, he hit a game-tying three-pointer with under a minute left in regulation — the kind of shot that requires ice in your veins and six years of college experience behind it. He dished a season-high 6 assists against Miami. He scored 17 points in the exhibition against Fayetteville State, reminding everyone that this was a player who had averaged 14 points in the Patriot League and shot .415 from three in the Big Ten.
He was named to the All-ACC Academic Team — his third academic honor across three schools. Two degrees from Illinois. An All-ACC Academic nod from Duke. 160 total college games across Holy Cross, Illinois, and Duke. He had played more college basketball than some coaches had coached, and he did it while earning three academic distinctions from three different conferences.
His Duke stat line — 4.4 points in 15.8 minutes — undersells what he was. He was the only player on the roster who had won a conference tournament before. He was the only one who had played in four different college basketball environments. He was the steadiest hand on a team that needed one, and when the ACC Tournament came around, the experience showed: Duke cut down the nets, beating Pittsburgh, Miami, and Virginia on three consecutive days.
Where Is He Now
Most Duke basketball players who go pro head to the NBA. Jacob Grandison headed to Europe — and then kept going. After leaving Durham, he signed with Menorca in Spain's lower divisions for a three-month deal, his first professional contract. He moved to Finland in February 2024 and joined Salon Vilpas in the Korisliiga — playing professional basketball in the country of his mother's birth. In October 2024, he landed a spot with the Santa Cruz Warriors, the Golden State Warriors' G-League affiliate, but was waived after three days due to injury. By February 2025, he was in Greece, playing for PAOK in the Greek Basketball League and the FIBA Europe Cup, where he scored 13 points in 13 minutes in a Europe Cup Final loss to Bilbao Basket.
The Finnish passport opened a second career entirely. Grandison was selected for the Finnish national team, competing in the 2023 FIBA World Cup in the Philippines and the 2024 Olympic qualifying tournament. At EuroBasket 2025, he helped Finland reach the semifinals for the first time in the country's basketball history — a fourth-place finish on a team led by NBA star Lauri Markkanen. A kid from Oakland, wearing Finland across his chest, helping a nation that barely registers on the basketball map make its deepest run ever.
He now plays for Boulazac Basket Dordogne in France's LNB Pro A — the top French professional league. Spain, Finland, Greece, France. Four countries in three years of professional basketball, after four schools in six years of college basketball. Jacob Grandison has played organized basketball on three continents and represented two nations.
Scheyer's first Duke team was defined by its five-star freshmen — Filipowski, Lively, Whitehead, Mitchell. But it was built by its graduate transfers — Young, Grandison, Catchings, Johns. The freshmen went to the NBA. Grandison went to the world. He's the only Brotherhood member currently representing another country in FIBA competition, and he's doing it with a game-tying three-pointer at Virginia and 160 college games on his resume. Oakland to Exeter to Holy Cross to Illinois to Duke to Spain to Finland to Greece to France. The journey isn't over. It might never be.