Road to Duke
His father weighed 340 pounds and blocked for Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown on the Miami Dolphins offensive line for eight seasons. His grandfather played basketball at Oral Roberts University. Vernon Carey Jr. was built for both sports, but he chose the one where the ball was smaller and the stakes, for a 6-10 kid with soft hands and nimble feet, were higher.
Carey was born on February 25, 2001, in Miami, Florida, and grew up in Southwest Ranches, an affluent suburb west of Fort Lauderdale. His father, Vernon Carey Sr., was a first-round NFL pick — taken 19th overall by the Dolphins in the 2004 Draft after an All-American career at the University of Miami. The family's athletic pedigree was undeniable. But Vernon Jr. was drawn to the court, not the field, from the beginning.
He attended NSU University School in Fort Lauderdale — so named because it sits on the campus of Nova Southeastern University. From his freshman year forward, Carey dominated. As a sophomore, he averaged 22.0 points and 8.0 rebounds and led University School to a Florida district championship. As a junior, the numbers swelled to 26.1 points and 10.4 rebounds as the team went 36-2 and won the Florida 5A state title, the City of Palms Classic, and the John Wall Invitational. His senior year featured a supporting cast that included future NBA players Scottie Barnes, Taylor Hendricks, and Jace and Jett Howard, and the Sharks defended their state championship — though Carey was sidelined for the title game itself.
On the AAU circuit with Nike Team Florida, he averaged 17.4 points and 5.3 rebounds on the EYBL. At the Nike Peach Jam, he posted 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocks against James Wiseman, the consensus #1 recruit in the country. By the end of his senior season, Carey was ranked sixth nationally by the RSCI, a consensus five-star, and selected for the McDonald's All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic.
On December 6, 2018 — the one-year anniversary of his grandfather Vincent's passing — Carey pulled a Duke handkerchief from his jacket pocket on SportsCenter and announced his commitment. He chose the Blue Devils over North Carolina, Miami, Michigan State, and Kentucky. 'The reason why I chose Duke and Coach K is the recruiting class they're bringing in this year,' he told ESPN's Cari Champion. 'Wendell Moore and Boogie Ellis, and hopefully some more guys will come with me.' Duke's pitch, as Carey explained it, was that they saw him as 'a positionless player' who 'can play anywhere on the court.'
At Duke
The positionless experiment didn't last. Carey had never played the post before arriving at Duke — he'd been a perimeter player in high school, a face-up scorer who could handle the ball and shoot threes. But at 6-10 and 270 pounds, with the build of the offensive lineman his father had been, Coach K and assistant Nate James converted him into a low-post presence. It worked immediately, and spectacularly.
'He never played at the post before coming here,' Krzyzewski said midseason, 'and so early on he wasn't double-teamed, the first few games, and he put up good numbers. Then he was learning to play the post against one guy, and now people are double and triple teaming him. The main thing is he's developed poise.'
Carey's freshman year was a wrecking ball. He started 30 of 31 games and averaged 17.8 points on .577 shooting — the best field goal percentage in the ACC and 21st nationally — with 8.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. He was the only player ranked in the ACC's top 10 in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage, and blocked shots simultaneously. He recorded 15 double-doubles, second among all NCAA freshmen, with ten of them being 20-10 performances.
The highlights were staggering. At the 2K Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden, he scored 31 points on Cal — with 12 rebounds and four blocks in just 23 minutes, the fewest minutes by a Duke player with a 30-point game. Two weeks later, at #11 Michigan State, he had 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks in a signature road win. He scored 26 against both Pittsburgh and Syracuse in the same week — adding 13 rebounds against the Panthers and a career-high 17 boards at the Carrier Dome. He tied the fifth-longest consecutive double-double streak in Duke history at seven games. On Senior Night against #17 North Carolina, Carey had 18 points and 8 rebounds before fouling out with four minutes left — the same game where Wendell Moore hit the buzzer-beater in overtime.
'Staying aggressive really on both ends,' Carey said after his 31-point eruption at MSG. 'My team got me going from the beginning. They gave me energy from the get-go.' His teammate Tre Jones, who would win ACC Player of the Year that season, put it more simply: 'His basketball IQ is through the roof. I don't think people give him credit.'
Carey was named ACC Freshman of the Year, First Team All-ACC, USBWA and NABC National Freshman of the Year, and a consensus Second Team All-American. He was a finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award and a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy. When he declared for the draft, Coach K released a statement that carried unusual warmth: 'We were honored to have Vernon and his family in our program this season. He had an incredible year, being named one of our team's Most Valuable Players, the National Freshman of the Year and a consensus All-American.'
But the season ended in silence. On March 12, 2020, the ACC Tournament was cancelled after one game due to the spread of COVID-19. The NCAA Tournament was scrapped entirely. Duke finished 25-6, ranked #9, with no March to play. Carey, Jones, Moore, Cassius Stanley, Matthew Hurt, and the rest of the roster never got the chance to test themselves in the bracket. It remains one of the great what-ifs of the Krzyzewski era — a team with a National Freshman of the Year at center and the ACC Player of the Year at point guard, robbed of its postseason by a pandemic.
After Duke
The 2020 NBA Draft was delayed until November and conducted virtually, without a green room or an audience — another casualty of the pandemic. Charlotte took Carey with the 32nd pick, the second selection of the second round. He signed a multi-year deal with the Hornets and made his NBA debut on December 30, playing four minutes in a blowout win over Dallas.
The NBA was not kind. Over two seasons in Charlotte, Carey shuffled between the roster and the Greensboro Swarm, Charlotte's G League affiliate. In February 2022, the Hornets traded him and Ish Smith to the Washington Wizards for Montrezl Harrell. In Washington, the pattern continued — 11 appearances totaling 28 minutes. The G League was where Carey thrived: with the Capital City Go-Go, he averaged 22.5 points and 9.6 rebounds in the Showcase Cup, then 20.7 and 8.3 in the regular season, shooting nearly .590 from the field. He looked like a dominant post player at that level. But the NBA didn't have room for a traditional big man who couldn't switch on the perimeter.
Washington waived him in March 2023. Utah signed him and then let him go after Summer League. Three years after averaging nearly 18 and 9 as a consensus All-American, Carey was out of the NBA entirely.
Where Is He Now
In September 2023, Carey signed with Pınar Karşıyaka of the Turkish Basketball Super League. It was a world away from Cameron Indoor Stadium and Madison Square Garden — but it was professional basketball, and Carey played well in Turkey before a knee injury ended his season prematurely.
He returned stateside looking for another shot. Houston brought him to training camp ahead of the 2025-26 season but waived him in October. As of March 2026, Carey is with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League, the Houston Rockets' affiliate, still working, still grinding through the cycle of Exhibit 10 contracts and preseason invites that defines life on the NBA's margins.
He is 25 years old. The son of an NFL offensive lineman. The grandson of a college basketball player. A McDonald's All-American who scored 31 points in 23 minutes at Madison Square Garden, who was the best freshman in America in a season that COVID erased before it could be finished. His 37 NBA games and 5.1 minutes per contest are a footnote to a story that deserved a longer chapter. Carey's Duke career produced a PER of 34.1 — among the highest single-season marks in program history — in a season that simply stopped.
The pandemic took his postseason. The modern NBA's obsession with switchable, perimeter-oriented big men took his professional career. But somewhere between Fort Lauderdale and Turkey and the Rio Grande Valley, Vernon Carey Jr. is still the kid who pulled a Duke handkerchief from his pocket on the anniversary of his grandfather's death and bet on himself. The bet hasn't paid off the way anyone expected. The kid hasn't stopped making it.