Road to Duke
Every story is derived from an older story, and Wendell Carter Jr.’s begins before he was born. His father, Wendell Carter Sr., was born to a convicted felon in Atlanta. Having a child out of wedlock was a violation of her parole, so after the baby was born, she abandoned him in an apartment. Police broke in and found an infant alone, his diapers soiled. He was sent to an orphanage. He was there until he was five or six years old, when a woman adopted him and raised him as her own. That woman’s gravestone is in an Atlanta cemetery.
Years later, Wendell Sr. drove his teenage son to that cemetery. They walked up to the gravestone of his adoptive mother. He immediately broke down. So did his son. That was the moment Wendell Carter Jr. learned his own origin story — how his father had been abandoned, found by police, raised in an orphanage, and saved by a woman who chose to love him. It was the day Wendell Jr. understood why his father was so present, so involved, so determined to never let his own child feel alone. I could have easily ran with the wrong crowd, Wendell Sr. said. But I was so focused on basketball. That was the only thing that kept me going.
Basketball saved Wendell Sr. He grew to 6’6 with a 42-inch vertical and played college basketball at Delta State University in Mississippi. After college, he played professionally in the Dominican Republic. One day in Atlanta, Kylia’s sister introduced them as Wendell was leaving for a summer pro-am game — a league where Dominique Wilkins and Spud Webb played. Kylia came to watch. She was 6’5, a basketball player at the University of Mississippi. I thought he was cute, to be honest, Kylia said. But any excuse to go watch basketball. At halftime, there was a slam-dunk contest. Twenty-six years of marriage later, Wendell Sr.’s dunk contest trophy still sits on the piano in their Atlanta home.
When Wendell Carter Jr. came out of the womb — 11 pounds, 8 ounces, 26 inches long — you could say he was born to play basketball. As a toddler, he ran up and down the floor at his father’s church league games, mimicking everything his dad did. At Pace Academy in Atlanta, he became a dominant force: 22.7 points, 15.5 rebounds, and 5.5 blocks as a senior, a Georgia Class AA state championship with 30 points and 20 rebounds in the title game, the Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year award for character and academics, a 3.8 GPA, the Lance and Shield Award as Pace’s top scholar-athlete, a member of the National Honor Society, and an actor in the school play Thoroughly Modern Millie.
He also seriously considered Harvard. His mother, who valued education above everything, pushed hard for the Ivy League. Carter took his first official visit to Cambridge, enjoyed the diversity and academic environment, and called it a great possibility. In a second-grade class, a teacher had asked students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Carter wrote that he wanted to be a professional basketball player. His classmates ridiculed him. His mother still has the piece of paper. He chose Duke — the compromise between Harvard’s academics and championship basketball.
At Duke
Carter arrived at Duke for the 2017–18 season alongside Marvin Bagley III, Gary Trent Jr., and one of the most talented freshman classes in the country. On a team where Bagley was the headliner — the reclassified number one recruit, the ACC Player of the Year — Carter was the anchor. He formed a devastating frontcourt tandem with Bagley, providing the defense, rim protection, and efficiency that Bagley’s scoring required.
Over 37 starts, Carter averaged 13.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 2.1 blocks per game, shooting 56.1 percent from the field and 46.3 percent from three. He finished second all-time among Duke freshmen in rebounds (335), blocked shots (76), and double-doubles (16). He was named Second Team All-ACC and a unanimous selection to the ACC All-Freshman Team. The NBA comparison that made the most sense, CBS Sports wrote at the time, was Al Horford: a lack of flash but an abundance of fundamentals.
Duke reached the Elite Eight before falling, and Carter declared for the 2018 NBA Draft.
After Duke
The Chicago Bulls selected Carter with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. His mother, ever protective, rejected the notion that being a first-round pick meant her 19-year-old son was ready to live on his own. Every other 19-year-old kid lives at home with their momma, Kylia said. So why do we become helicopter parents because our kid’s a millionaire and we still want him at home with us?
Carter played two and a half seasons in Chicago, establishing himself as a reliable young center averaging around 11 points and 8 rebounds. In March 2021, he was traded to the Orlando Magic, where his career found its fullest expression. With Orlando, Carter became the starting center of one of the NBA’s most promising young cores. He signed a four-year, $50 million contract extension. In 2024–25, he appeared in 68 games, averaging 9.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 2.0 assists while ranking 29th in the NBA in rebounding. He surpassed 4,000 career points and 3,000 career rebounds. He averaged a double-double in the playoffs: 10.2 points and 10.8 rebounds in 32.4 minutes per game.
Through seven NBA seasons, Carter has appeared in 383 regular-season games with 345 starts, averaging 11.9 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists while shooting 50.9 percent from the field. He is what the modern NBA needs from its centers: a rim protector who can stretch the floor with a three-point shot, facilitate from the high post, and anchor a defense without requiring the ball on offense.
Where Is He Now
Wendell Carter Jr. is currently the starting center for the Orlando Magic, under contract through 2025–26 on his $50 million extension. He and his parents founded A Platform Squared, a nonprofit organization focused on financial literacy, social justice, mentorship, and economic empowerment. He received the NBA Cares Bob Lanier Community Assist Award and the Presidential Scholar Award in 2022 for combining basketball with education advocacy. His mother, Kylia, became a prominent critic of NCAA exploitation and co-founded Elevate, an enterprise designed to empower athletes and their families.
In a league full of flash, Carter operates with fundamentals. In a sport that celebrates scorers, he protects the rim and sets screens. In a culture that measures basketball players by their Instagram following, he earned a 3.8 GPA, acted in his high school play, and almost went to Harvard. His parents call it love. Other people call it spoiled. But they participated in everything he did.
Wendell Carter Jr. was born at 11 pounds, 8 ounces in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was abandoned as an infant, found by police in a soiled diaper, raised in an orphanage, saved by an adoptive mother, and went on to play professional basketball in the Dominican Republic. His mother was a 6’5 basketball player at Ole Miss who valued education above everything else. They met because of a dunk contest. Their son was mimicking his father’s moves on the church basketball court at age three. He earned a 3.8 GPA at Pace Academy, won a state championship with 30 points and 20 rebounds, acted in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and seriously considered going to Harvard. He chose Duke, formed a frontcourt with Marvin Bagley III, averaged a double-double, and was drafted seventh overall. He has played seven NBA seasons, started 345 games, pulled down 3,000 rebounds, and signed a $50 million contract. His mother still has the piece of paper from second grade where he wrote that he wanted to be a professional basketball player. The other kids laughed. Nobody is laughing now.