There haven’t been a lot of Asian basketball players in the ACC, much less at Duke. We can only think of a handful: Tony Rutland, whose mother was Korean, played at Wake Forest, Kihei Clark, currently at Virginia, who is Chinese, Filipino and Black, Isaiah Wong currently at Miami, whose grandfather is Chinese, and of course Filipino Chip Engelland, who played at Duke in the late ‘70s and into Coach K’s first year.
There haven’t been too many though so it’s really exciting to see Duke freshman Jessica DeJesus on the women’s team.
DeJesus grew up in California and got a chance to meet the late Kobe Bryant and to be mentored by him for a time at his Mamba Sports Academy.