Jayson Tatum hired by Duke as chief basketball officer

As he works his way back to tournament action for the Celtics Jayson Tatum will be lending a hand at his alma mater Duke University on Tuesday broadcasted it had hired the Boston star and Blue Devils alum as its first chief basketball officer The undertaking described the role as a special advisor to head coach Jon Scheyer adding that Tatum will leverage his career success to provide perspective and guidance on basketball expansion leadership and life as a profitable athlete leaning on the lessons he first learned at Duke Tatum who returned to Duke for a preseason event last week announced he was honored to accept the position I have a lot of pride and love about this undertaking what it meant for me as a kid and what it s meant for me in my career and just the doors and relationships that it s provided Tatum declared in a conversation with Scheyer on Duke s The Brotherhood Podcast I stated all the time that the unique thing about being a part of this venture is everybody that came before me needed me to be the best version of myself and I think just paying it forward So having the opportunity to make that relationship formal I ve perpetually supported you guys in every way that I could so now having an opportunity to just really get to know the guys and be around more as much as I can and just help out in any way Tatum played one season at Duke in - before being drafted third overall by the Celtics Scheyer was a Duke assistant at the time working under legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski Scheyer emphasized that Tatum s Duke duties will be secondary to his rehab from Achilles surgery which the coach called the main purpose of what Tatum is attacking right now Tatum who underwent surgery in May in recent times resumed on-court workouts and has been a daily fixture at Celtics training camp though he is not yet ready to begin practicing with the crew The Celtics and Tatum have not ruled out the possibility of the four-time first-team All-NBA selection returning at various point this season but his exact timeline remains unclear Tatum stated last Monday at Celtics media day that he was in a really good spot with his recovery