LAS VEGAS - Amile Jefferson knows exactly where he wants coaching to take him, but he’s not treating the finish line like a deadline.
The Celtics’ Summer League head coach, who earned his first win in that role a day earlier, said his long-term aim is still to become an NBA head coach. Just not on some forced timetable. Jefferson made that clear while reflecting on the advice he got from Mike Krzyzewski back at Duke, where Jefferson spent three years as captain and helped lead the Blue Devils to the national title in 2014-15.
“It’s funny, going back to Duke. That was the first stop when I pivoted and started coaching.
And Coach K has always been, if you’re going to do this, do it to be a head coach. He always says he only hires guys that want to be head coaches,” shared Jefferson, a day after earning his first win at the helm of the Celtics’ Summer League squad.
“He had a real deep conversation with me about that. About you can’t be halfway in, you got to be all the way in, and I’ve taken that everywhere I’ve gone. So, he’s been super important, and not only to my basketball career, but my life in general.”
Jefferson’s path has been steady and deliberate. Two years after mentoring a young Jayson Tatum as an incoming freshman at Duke, he moved into coaching.
His first stop was his alma mater, where he worked with Jon Scheyer before joining Boston’s staff in 2023-24. That move put him inside a Celtics program that rolled to 64 wins and a championship that season.
For Jefferson, that first year in Boston was a crash course in the profession.
“I tell everyone, my first year here was like a PhD in basketball,” he said after orchestrating Saturday’s practice. “I got to learn so much from my coaches, and they’re just so intelligent and creative. And so it made me start thinking about the…”
Even with that momentum, Jefferson isn’t racing toward the league’s top chair. He pointed out that there are only 30 NBA head coaching jobs, with expansion possibly creating 32 someday, but said the scarcity doesn’t change his approach.
“Your mindset just can’t change. I have a growth mindset, and I’m not in a rush to do anything,” he conveyed.
“The only thing I’m in a rush to do is get better every day and learn every day and be confident and feel really good about who I am as a coach, about development, and about the things I believe in, in terms of basketball, offense, and defense. So, for me, it’s just about becoming better and doing that every day and learning more about the game, being creative, and thinking about it in new ways.”
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