Stewart took his last official visit to Duke and had been a fan of the Blue Devils since the third grade.
Windermere (Fla.) Prep’s Sean Stewart is one of the top forwards in the 2023 class and ended his recruitment on Dec. 23, picking Duke over Stanford, Michigan, Georgetown, Ohio State, Kansas, Howard and Harvard. He wrote an exclusive blog with Sports Illustrated to break down his thought process behind the decision.
What’s going on world, this is Sean Stewart and I’m happy to say that I’m officially committed to The Brotherhood at Duke!
I can’t tell you guys how happy I am to be able to say that!
I’ve actually been a Duke fan since around the third or fourth grade. It’s definitely been a dream of mine to play there for Duke and play in Cameron in front of the best fans in the world!
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It was just too hard to pass up.
Duke was my last visit and it just reinforced why I wanted to go there.
My family knows Grant Hill and his family really well. Him and my dad have been friends for a long time, so to be able to play at the school he played at is pretty cool.
I think my favorite Duke player would have to be Jayson Tatum.
I just loved watching him play when he was at Duke because he really could do anything on the court, and I love watching him now.
So the way I broke it to the staff was we got the whole staff on a Zoom call.
I told them I wanted to spend my four years in college at Duke. I told them I wanted to work as hard as I can to be ready when I get there, and I know that they were the staff and that was the place to take my game to the next level.
They were all yelling and happy!
FAAZ
It was even better because Coach K just happened to be walking by the office when I committed!
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He popped on the Zoom and joked around with me and said, “Well, it’s about time Sean!”
Haha!
That made the whole thing even cooler!
I am very relieved to have this decision out of the way. It’s been a lot, and it’s definitely a good problem to have because you’ve got all of these top schools that want you, but I’m not gonna like I’m gonna really like having some time to myself after practices and games.
Coach (Jon) Scheyer just really laid out how the system at Duke is position-less and how they’re going after guys that can do a lot of different things like me, Caleb (Foster), Mackenzie (Mgbako) and Jared (McCain).
All of those guys are super talented, and we’ve already got Caleb, so I told Coach Scheyer I’m the fifth assistant recruiter so I’m going hard at those other guys!
I have all the confidence in the world in Coach Scheyer and the staff there. All of those guys are national champions and guys who have played in the NBA. They know what it takes to be a winner at every level and that’s something that I’ve always dreamed of being a part of!
OK guys, that’s it, I just wanted to give you more than just telling you who I picked, so I appreciate Sports Illustrated for giving me the platform.
To all the Duke fans, just know that I’m ready to go and I’ll see you guys soon!
Thanks again for reading everyone!
Be safe and GO DUKE!
Don’t forget to follow Sean Stewart:
Twitter: @Sean13Stewart
Instagram: sean13stewart