University of Georgia Athletics
A Quick Chat With ... Christian Harrison
November 21, 2016 | Men's Basketball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Christian Harrison is one of the new members of the Georgia men's basketball team, though you won't see him in action this season. The 6-foot-4 sophomore guard is a transfer from Troy and has to sit out a year before he's eligible to play.
Unfortunately for Harrison, an Atlanta native that went to Woodward Academy, this will basically be the second straight season he's been a spectator. Harrison played in just one game for Troy last season before an injury sidelined him the rest of the way.
Harrison sat down recently for a quick chat about being a DJ, his first dunk, his new teammates and much more. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: I was looking at your bio and saw that you were pretty good at the long jump and triple jump in high school. The triple jump has always struck me as one of the harder things to do well, so what was it like for you?
Harrison: I actually was pretty good at triple jump, yeah. It took me a while to the technique down; I only did it one year because I suffered a hairline fracture in my left hip from triple jumping, so I stopped.
It's all about the technique — of course you have to be athletic, but technique has so much to do with it.
Frierson: Do you miss being able to do different sports and different things, like so many athletes are able to do in high school?
Harrison: Not really. The only sport I wish I'd played in high school was football — I wish I'd tried it.
Frierson: I suspect you would have been a pretty good receiver.
Harrison: The football coaches in high school wanted me to play receiver but I was all basketball at that point.
Frierson: What's the most creative thing you do? Or what's something creative you wish you could do?
Harrison: A lot of people don't know that I'm a pretty good DJ. At Troy I did a little bit of DJ-ing while I was hurt and couldn't practice or travel with the team.
Frierson: As a 44-year-old who doesn't know much about being a DJ, what makes a good one? I know it has to be way more challenging and stimulating than just pressing play on a playlist.
Harrison: The most difficult part would probably be gauging the crowd and seeing what songs to play at the right moment. Just transitioning from song to song is pretty important, but picking the song is always the most difficult part.
Frierson: I know there are DJs that make about as much money as the actual recording artists, so is DJ-ing something you might like to pursue beyond college?
Harrison: Nah, it's just a hobby. I like music a lot, but I could never sing and I'm not too good at writing music, and I couldn't really play any instruments — so DJ-ing was my hobby that included music.
Frierson: I'm a 5-11 guy that never got near the rim, so I'm very envious of those that can dunk. What do you remember about your first dunk?
Harrison: The first time I ever dunked I was about 13 or 14. It was the summer right before ninth grade and we were just working out and I dunked. And I didn't dunk again until freshman year in a game; I think it was in January, and after that I got pretty consistent.
Frierson: What's it like being a new guy coming into a program with college experience under his belt, but is starting over again at the same time?
Harrison: It wasn't too difficult. The guys were really good at making me feel welcomed and the hardest part was probably learning all the new plays. Defensively, it's some of the same concepts that I had learned at Troy, so I was able to carry those over to Georgia, but offensively everything was completely new.
Frierson: What's something from your childhood that you really miss?
Harrison: As a young, young kid, like 7 or 8, going to my older brother's soccer games on Saturdays and then going back to my grandparents' house after that and spending the weekend with them. In the spring and the summer that was always fun — a lot of good memories.
Frierson: You talk about visiting your grandparents' house, so what image or sound or smell immediately came to mind when you thought of those special times there?
Harrison: Firewood, the smell of a burning fire. They don't like using air conditioning or heat, so they use fire. The smell of smoke from a fire reminds me of winters and summers at their house.
Frierson: What's the best thing that all these years of playing sports has taught you?
Harrison: To stay determined would probably be the most valuable thing. I feel like a lot of people get good at something and then they stop working, or either they're good at something and they never really worked hard to become good.
There was a point where I barely made the middle school team, seventh-grade year, and then eighth-grade year I made it, but played in only like two games. So after that season I just was determined to be a better player once I got to high school.
I worked really hard that summer and the following summers, and I think me and another guy were the only players from that middle school team that got the opportunity to play in college. Determination is a really important thing.
Frierson: What's the best new thing, at least new to you, that has entered your life in 2016?
Harrison: This, being at the University of Georgia and being able to play basketball here and be a student here. This is the best thing that has happened to me in 2016, and in a long time, not just this year. This is great.
Frierson: Is there one part of that that stands out the most?
Harrison: All of it, all of it so far has been great.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
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: hFrierson Files He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
