Overview
A four-time Emmy Nominee, Jay has three times been named the best analyst in college basketball by Sports Illustrated, as well as by the ACC Sports Journal, and Barrett Sports Media, among others. In 2016, Jay was the recipient of the prestigious Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The New York Times Bestselling author of Toughness: Developing True Strength on and Off the Court, Jay also writes for ESPN.com, and was awarded the Best Column of the Year in 2007 by The United States Basketball Writers Association.
A prep All-American from Los Angeles, California, the 6-7 Jay was a four-year starter at Duke under Mike Krzyzewski from 1982-1986. As an undersized center, Jay scored 1,062 points, grabbed 692 rebounds, and helped lead Duke to the the No. 1 ranking, the 1986 ACC Championship and the 1986 NCAA Championship Game. Jay’s 1986 Duke team set the NCAA record for the most wins in a single season with 37.
While a player at Duke, Jay was appointed to the NCAA’s Long-Range Planning Committee, and served from 1984 through 1986. He appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation in 1985 to discuss academics and athletics and was a panelist, along with Howard Cosell, John Underwood, and Dr. Harry Edwards, on the prestigious 1986 National Sports Forum.
Drafted by the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Jay played professional basketball overseas, ranking among the leagues’ top scorers in Italy during the 1987 and 1988 seasons, and then in Spain for part of the 1989 season before returning to Duke in 1990 to serve as an assistant coach on Krzyzewski’s staff, while also earning his law degree from Duke Law School. While Jay was an assistant coach under Krzyzewski, the Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA Championship Gem three times, winning back to back National Championships in 1991 and 1992.
A member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1988, Jay has appeared in numerous, nationally run television commercials and had a feature role as an alien cop in the Columbia Pictures film I Come In Peace. While still in high school, Jay appeared in an episode of the popular television series The White Shadow.
Jay is a skillful and popular speaker and moderator, whose knowledge extends across both the sports and legal worlds. Jay has spoken and lectured at such places as Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics, the University of North Carolina’s Summit on Ethics, Duke Law School, the Fuqua School of Business-Coach K Conference on Leadership, Marquette, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Xavier, Tennessee, Syracuse, Indiana, and Ohio State. Jay has also served as the emcee of several Coaches vs. Cancer Benefits, including those at Connecticut, Wisconsin, Syracuse, Wake Forest, and Gonzaga, and for the National Association of Collegiate Athletic Directors. In addition, Jay has deftly served as the clever host of three Celebrity Roasts, where he cut up the likes of Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, P.J. Carlesimo, Bill Raftery, Bobby Cremins, Gary Williams, Jeff Foxworthy, and Charles Barkley.
Jay is also a Twitter sensation, having been named by Sports Illustrated to its “Twitter 100” for being among the 100 Most Essential Twitter Follows in Sports and by Dime Magazine as the #2 “Baller” on Twitter behind only Shaquille O’Neal. Sports Illustrated honored Jay in 2011 with the Sports Tweet of the Year. Jay has been named one of The Ten Most Powerful Voices in Sports Media by The Hollywood Reporter, one of The 25 Most Powerful People in College Sports by Forbes, one of The 100 Most Powerful People in Sports by Hudl, one of the 25 Most Powerful People in Sports Media by The Big Lead, and one of the Most Powerful People in Global Basketball by GeorgeRaveling.com.
Since 1992, Jay has been an attorney with the law firm of Moore & Van Allen, PLLC, where he has focused on commercial litigation. Jay serves on the Board of Advisors of the John R. Wooden Award, the Board of Advisors of the Chip Hilton Award, the National Board of the Coaches vs. Cancer Organization, and the Board of Advisors of the Duke Brain Tumor Center. A native of San Pedro, California, Jay now resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his professional artist wife, Wendy.