Stagg Making His Dream Come True

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Looking down at his size 16 Nikes, Kareem Stagg said he was thankful to be living in the internet age, when online shopping made life a lot easier for people who can't find their sizes at most regular stores.

"I could not live 30 years ago," said the 6-foot-8 Georgia men's basketball freshman.

A forward from Chesapeake, Va., who did his last two years of high school at the IMG Academy in Florida, Stagg said he was "pretty much always the big guy in class" throughout his childhood. "I never disliked it," he said of standing out because he was taller than everyone else. "It's not that I really liked it a lot, but it was something I just took pride in."

He comes by his size naturally; Stagg's father, Keith, is 6-9 and played basketball at Delaware State in the 1990s. Keith has been a coach at different levels, including high school, AAU and college, for many years. Stagg's mother, Dorinda, played basketball and volleyball at Delaware State.

Stagg, who also has two older siblings, said "we are a competitive family," especially when it comes to basketball. "For real, every time we talk basketball, it gets competitive."

As a young boy, Stagg said, he "actually didn't even like basketball. I played baseball and flag football, but I didn't really like sports at all as a kid." Instead, he said he preferred to play with his toy cars or just go outside to play with his friends.

It was in fourth or fifth grade that Stagg's interest in basketball began to develop, mainly through watching the game. As his interest grew and his body developed, so did his basketball ambitions. "By my fifth-grade year, I was like, I can really, if I stick to the plan, I can really do this, and this can become a dream come true."

The dream was to play in college and hopefully beyond, and it's a dream that Stagg has made come true. As a freshman at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, he averaged 10.0 points and 7.0 rebounds a game. Those numbers jumped up to 15.0 points and 10.2 rebounds as a sophomore. After that, he went off to IMG, where Stagg continued to develop while playing with and against some of the top players and teams across the country.

Stagg said he didn't really have a favorite player that he tried to mold his game after. Instead, he just wanted to be versatile, capable of playing inside and outside, and that's his approach to playing for the Bulldogs, too.

"I think I'm capable of doing that, especially this year for Georgia," he said.

A four-star recruit with a lot of options, Stagg said he chose to play for the Bulldogs because "the coaching staff had a good belief in me. And their plan for me, it just sounded right. I think I can come here and produce for the team and help the team win. That's all I wanted to do."

Stagg and the Bulldogs, who open their season Monday against Bellarmine, after the women's team's opener against Alabama State, have had a very busy and competitive summer and fall. Stagg said he's already seen a lot of changes in his game and his body.

"I think I've improved on my speed, my quickness, and how I read and react to what's happening on the court. My IQ for the game as gotten better, too," he said. "The SEC is a tough league, so going against guys like Somto (Cyril), Jaden (Newell), Dylan (James) and Jackson (McVey) in practice each day, all the big guys down there, it has really helped me a lot."

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.

University of Georgia Athletics

Players Mentioned

Kareem Stagg

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