D. J. Jeffries (born December 28, 1999) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). He previously played for the Memphis Tigers and Mississippi State.

Early life and high school career

In third grade, Jeffries learned how to play

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

from his uncle at the local

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

. He played the sport for Cordova Middle School in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

and stood 6'3 by seventh grade. Jeffries began dunking regularly by eighth grade. Jeffries played for

Olive Branch High School Olive Branch High School may refer to: *Olive Branch High School (Olive Branch, Mississippi) *Olive Branch High School (New Carlisle, Ohio) Olive Branch High School was a public high school near New Carlisle, Ohio. History In 1873, a brick struc ...

in Olive Branch, Mississippi. As a junior, he averaged 20.8 points per game, leading his team to the Class 5A state title. He was named Clarion-Ledger Player of the Year as the top player in Mississippi. In his senior season, Jeffries averaged 23.3 points, 12.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per game, leading Olive Branch to a Class 5A state runner-up finish while being named Mississippi

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys' baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine playe ...

. He was selected to play in the Jordan Brand Classic.

Recruiting

On March 12, 2018, Jeffries committed to play college basketball for

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

over offers from

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

and Mississippi State, among others. He decommitted from Kentucky on July 30, becoming the first Kentucky decommit under coach

John Calipari John Vincent Calipari (born February 10, 1959) is an American basketball coach. Since 2009, he has been the head coach of the University of Kentucky men's team, with whom he won the NCAA Championship in 2012. He has been named Naismith College C ...

. Jeffries committed to Memphis on October 27. By the end of his high school career, he was considered a five-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * ''Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (En ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and a four-star recruit by

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on athletic recruitment in college football and basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount. The website hosts a large network of team-specific subsites, with each subsite b ...

and

Rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

. Jeffries was the number one recruit from Mississippi in the 2019 class.

College career

Jeffries debuted for Memphis on November 5, 2019, recording five points, four rebounds, four assists and four blocks in a 97–64 win over

South Carolina State South Carolina State University (SCSU or SC State) is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States. It is the only public, historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina, is a memb ...

. On November 23, he scored a freshman season-high 23 points to go with four rebounds in an 87–86 victory over the

Ole Miss Rebels The Ole Miss Rebels are the 18 men's and women's intercollegiate athletic teams that are funded by and represent the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford. The first was the football team, which began play in 1893. Originally known as th ...

. Jeffries missed a January 4, 2020 game against Georgia with the

flu Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptom ...

. On January 20, 2020, he was named American Athletic Conference (AAC) Freshman of the Week, four days after scoring 18 points in a 60–49 win over

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. At practice on January 30, Jeffries partially tore his posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and was expected to miss four to six weeks of action. On March 3, after missing nine games with the injury, he was ruled out for the remainder of the season. Jeffries started in 13 of his 19 games as a freshman, averaging 10.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. As a sophomore, he averaged 9.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, helping Memphis win the

2021 National Invitation Tournament The 2021 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 16 NCAA Division I men's college basketball teams that had not been selected to participate in the 2021 NCAA tournament. The Tournament began on March 17 and ended on ...

. After the season, Jeffries transferred to Mississippi State. On June 30, 2024, Jeffries was selected for the Memphis Grizzlies 2024 Summer League roster.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Memphis , 19 , , 13 , , 27.1 , , .513 , , .390 , , .743 , , 4.3 , , 1.5 , , .7 , , 1.1 , , 10.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Memphis , 28 , , 11 , , 25.6 , , .443 , , .352 , , .562 , , 5.1 , , 1.9 , , .9 , , .9 , , 9.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Mississippi State , 34 , , 31 , , 28.1 , , .423 , , .293 , , .726 , , 4.2 , , 1.9 , , .7 , , .5 , , 8.9 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;", Mississippi State , 34 , , 34 , , 31.2 , , .351 , , .272 , , .579 , , 6.4 , , 1.8 , , 1.1 , , .4 , , 8.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 115 , , 89 , , 28.2 , , .420 , , .307 , , .638 , , 5.1 , , 1.8 , , .9 , , .7 , , 9.4

Personal life

Jeffries' cousins, Chandler, Dedric and K. J. Lawson, have played basketball at the collegiate or professional levels. He is the son of Shatonya and Corey Jeffries.

References

External links

Mississippi State Bulldogs bioMemphis Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffries, D. J. Living people 1999 births American men's basketball players Memphis Tigers men's basketball players Mississippi State Bulldogs men's basketball players Small forwards People from Olive Branch, Mississippi Sportspeople from the Memphis metropolitan area Basketball players from Mississippi 21st-century African-American sportspeople