Vernon Carey, U-School grad and son of former Dolphin, heads to Hornets in NBA draft
Vernon Carey Jr. was raised in the shadow of the Miami Dolphins Training Facility. Vernon Carey Sr., the center’s father, spent the entirety of his eight-year NFL career playing for the Dolphins. Starting in seventh grade, Carey Jr. attended NSU University School, which shares its Davie campus with the training facility.
It was there he blossomed into a superstar. As a junior, he led NSU University to its first state championship and carried University to the brink of a national title as a finalist at GEICO Nationals. As a senior, he helped the Sharks win a second straight state title and signed with the Duke Blue Devils as the No. 6 player in the country. He orally committed on his late grandfather’s birthday to honor the man who introduced him to basketball
Now one of the most accomplished basketball players in South Florida history is headed to the NBA. The Charlotte Hornets selected Carey Jr. with the second pick in the second round — No. 32 overall — of the 2020 NBA draft
Carey Jr. arrived at Duke billed as the Blue Devils’ next great one-and-done talent. An immediate successor to Zion Williamson, Carey Jr. became Duke’s foundation last year, helping the Blue Devils reach No. 1 early in the season and finish the year at No. 11 when the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shut down the season midway through the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
In his lone season at Duke, Carey Jr. averaged 21.7 points per game, 9.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks. He was a consensus second-team All-American, a first team All-ACC selection and the USBWA National Freshman of the Year. Although he was once considered a potential top-five pick, his slippage is more the result of a changing NBA than anything he did as a freshman in Durham, North Carolina.
Still, the combination of his production and his pedigree makes him one of the more fascinating prospects in this NBA draft. Carey Sr. was an All-American offensive lineman at Miami Northwestern High School back in 1998 and he joined the Miami Hurricanes as one of the most coveted prospects in the nation. In Coral Gables, Carey won a national championship, earned second-team all-Big East Conference honors twice and was a third-team All-American in 2003. The Dolphins selected him with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft and Carey Sr. was a fixture in their lineup until he retired in 2011.
Carey Jr. was born when Carey Sr. was just 19 and still not even getting playing time for the Hurricanes. Carey Jr. was there for his father’s entire journey, from his days as a backup freshman in Coral Gables all the way through the injury-plagued end of his career with the Dolphins.
In many ways, Carey Jr. is a spitting image of his father. The 6-foot-10, 270-pound post player has his father’s size and then some, and the footwork which helped make Carey Sr. a long-time NFL offensive linemen also shows up for Carey Jr. on the court. He’s built like an elite offensive lineman, but basketball was always Carey Jr.’s calling.
He started all four years at University and the Sharks, who had won a total of eight playoff games before he arrived, turned into one of Florida’s best teams with him there.
Former University coach Jim Carr once said the school should be a statue of Carey Jr. outside its basketball arena.
“He’s established us as a national program,” Carr said in 2018. “For us, he’s a truly generational player.”
