Dereck Lively II was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Dereck Lively and Katherine Drysdale. Dereck went to high school at Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he swam, played football, and basketball. Lively was a highly touted player at Westtown where he was rated as a five-star center, earning the No. 1 overall player rating in ESPN’s top 100 ranking for the class of 2022, a 2022 McDonald’s All-American, and selected to the 2022 all-state first-team. He was also named the Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year in 2022 after leading Westtown to a 31-7 record and the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association state championship. In Lively’s only season at Duke, he was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team, the ACC All-Defensive Team, and All-ACC Tournament Second Team. He tallied 82 blocks, ranking him 8th nationally while shooting 65.8% from the field – the team’s second-best field goal percentage.
