Road to Duke
Quinn Alexander Cook was born March 23, 1993, in Washington, D.C., the son of Ted and Janet Cook, both graduates of Howard University who met while attending the school. Ted Cook was a former star basketball player at Glenville High School in the late 1970s who became an entrepreneur in the restaurant business. Ted and Janet ran 4th and Goal, a sports bar on 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. Quinn’s earliest childhood memories are of that bar — shooting on a miniature Fisher-Price hoop inside at age four while his parents worked.
Ted was a lifelong Los Angeles Lakers fan who instilled in his son a love for basketball from the beginning. Quinn had his own basketball as a toddler and was playing organized ball by age ten. But tragedy struck early: Ted Cook died of a heart attack in 2008, when Quinn was just fourteen and had only recently begun playing at DeMatha Catholic High School. The loss was devastating. Quinn missed games. It took time to escape the trauma. After Ted’s death, Janet supported the family by working two jobs in security and event staffing.
At DeMatha — the same school that produced Danny Ferry — Cook played three seasons. The Stags went 85–18 and were ranked No. 1 in Maryland during his junior year. He was named the Washington Post All-Met Player of the Year as a junior, the first junior to receive that honor in 30 years. His teammates included future NBA players Jerami Grant, Jerian Grant, and Victor Oladipo.
Cook transferred to Oak Hill Academy for his senior year, leading the Warriors to a 31–4 record while averaging 19.1 points, 10.9 assists, and 2.5 steals. McDonald’s All-American. He chose Duke over Villanova, UCLA, and North Carolina. When asked why: ‘The reason I chose Duke is because of Coach K.’
At Duke
Cook played all four years at Duke, amassing 1,571 career points (28th on Duke’s all-time list), becoming one of only seven Blue Devils to record 1,000 points and 500 assists, and finishing fourth in career free-throw percentage at .853.
As a freshman in 2011–12, he backed up Austin Rivers and Seth Curry, averaging 4.4 points in 11.7 minutes. As a sophomore, he moved into the starting lineup and led the team with 5.3 assists per game while averaging 11.7 points. Each year, Cook grew — not in dramatic fashion, but steadily, like a player building a house one brick at a time.
The payoff came as a senior in 2014–15. Cook averaged 15.3 points and 2.6 assists and was named All-ACC Third Team. He was the emotional engine of the team — the four-year player holding together a roster of talented freshmen (Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones) who would leave after one season. On April 6, 2015, Duke defeated Wisconsin 68–63 to win the national championship. Jones was named Final Four MOP. But Cook was the glue — the senior who knew the system, who had survived four years of development, who gave that team its backbone. He graduated with a degree in sociology.
After Duke
Cook went undrafted in 2015. What followed was one of the most remarkable persistence stories in recent basketball: a grinding, multi-year odyssey through the G League, 10-day contracts, and overseas stints that produced two NBA championship rings.
He spent the 2015–16 season with the Canton Charge in the D-League, averaging 19.6 points and 5.4 assists to win D-League Rookie of the Year and the All-Star Game MVP. Then came 10-day contracts: Dallas in February 2017, New Orleans in March 2017. Each time he proved he could play; each time the opportunity evaporated.
In October 2017, Golden State signed Cook to a two-way contract. When Stephen Curry went down with an injury, Cook stepped into the starting lineup and delivered: 9.5 points per game as a starter, 44.2% from three. The Warriors won the 2018 championship. Cook had a ring — earned through the G League, through 10-day contracts, through sheer refusal to quit.
In July 2019, Cook signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won his second championship when the Lakers defeated the Miami Heat in the 2020 Finals in the COVID bubble. Two rings. Neither handed to him.
After the Lakers, the journey continued: brief stints with the Cavaliers, Portland training camp, Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia, Stockton Kings in the G League (averaging 23.5 ppg), Zhejiang Lions in China (where he scored a career-high 54 points in 29 minutes), time in Puerto Rico, Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia, and as of early 2025, the Fujian Sturgeons in the CBA. Career NBA totals: 188 games, 6.4 ppg — modest numbers that do not capture the journey.
Where Is He Now
Quinn Cook is 32 years old and still playing professional basketball overseas, chasing the game his father gave him. In 2024, he announced the opening of 4th Quarter Sports Bar in Bowie, Maryland — a tribute to his parents’ sports bar, 4th and Goal, where he first fell in love with sports. His mother Janet and sister Kelsey help run it while his playing career continues.
He has played on three continents, in seven countries, and won championships at every level: NCAA (2015), NBA (2018, 2020). Duke Basketball Report has noted he has an incredibly bright future in coaching if he wants it.
His story is the Brotherhood’s purest underdog narrative: the kid from D.C. who lost his father at fourteen, who played at DeMatha and Oak Hill and Duke, who went undrafted, who ground through the G League and 10-day contracts and overseas leagues, and who somehow ended up with two NBA rings and a sports bar named after the fourth quarter — because that’s when the game is decided, and Quinn Cook has always been a finisher.