University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Braelen Bridges
February 28, 2022 | Men's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Georgia men's basketball senior Braelen Bridges stands 6-foot-11, an imposing presence for anyone driving in the paint against the Bulldogs. Now just imagine him standing on the pitcher's mound at Foley Field.
Bridges grew up playing baseball and basketball, loving both sports, and if it wasn't for a broken arm in high school he might have decided to focus on seeing how far he could go as a pitcher. Late in high school, the Atlanta native chose basketball, starting his collegiate career at Northwest Florida State before transferring to UIC (the University of Illinois at Chicago) for two seasons and then coming to Georgia.
Through 29 games, Bridges was second on the team in scoring (12.7 ppg), second in rebounding (5.6 rpg) and his shooting percentage of 63.7% leads the team and ranks 30th nationally. During a recent Quick Chat, Bridges talked about his first dunk, the life of a tall person, baseball, his admiration for Anthony Davis, and much more. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: As a guy that never got near the rim, I always ask about first dunks. Do you remember your first dunk?
Bridges: My first dunk was in eighth grade going into ninth. I was at the New Birth church in Atlanta with my cousin, and we just kept trying to dunk and trying to dunk and I eventually got it.
I was tall so everyone was like, "You need to be dunking!" It was just something where I was like, I'm going to get it today. I was determined to dunk the ball that day.
Frierson: Were you trying to dunk all the time in your next game?
Bridges: If I was open, I was definitely going to try, but I didn't get a chance to.
Frierson: Were you always the tall kid in your classes or did you have one big growth spurt?
Bridges: I've always been the tallest. Pretty much every team I've played on, I've been the tallest. I've been playing basketball and baseball since I was 3 years old so I've been the tallest a long time — tallest pitcher and tallest center all my life.
Frierson: How close did you come to choosing baseball and seeing how far you could go in that sport?
Bridges: I took baseball very seriously and I played all the way up until 11th and 12th grade, but I broke my arm and that made me turn to basketball even more. I already played basketball before that but my main focus was baseball. I played travel baseball all my life and I never played AAU basketball — I just played in high school. My main focus was baseball until I broke my arm and then I started putting in the extra work in basketball, played AAU, went to a JUCO (junior college), and now here I am.
Frierson: What's something you could eat every day and never get tired of it?
Bridges: Pasta, for sure. I like chicken alfredo, chicken and shrimp alfredo — anything pasta. I just love pasta and I like the alfredo sauce, not the red sauce.
Frierson: Speaking of food, you spent a few years in Chicago, so how do you feel about the Chicago-style deep-dish pizza?
Bridges: At first I thought it was weird, but I like cheese and there is a lot of cheese. Deep-dish has a lot of cheese — you can tell them to go light on the sauce and then it's really, really good.
Frierson: And for somebody that grew up in Atlanta, what were those Chicago winters like?
Bridges: They were very crazy. I like shoes a lot but you can't wear your shoes you like in Chicago, you have to wear boots. Big jackets, boots, stuff like that or you'll freeze to death (laughs).
I came home with a lot of big jackets, big boots, thermal stuff that I don't need to wear anymore.
Frierson: If you could play with or against anyone in history, who would it be?
Bridges: I would want to play with LeBron (James) and Anthony Davis. Davis is my favorite player and I just like the way LeBron plays, how he gets everybody involved. He's the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all-time) to me.
Frierson: Is that why you wear No. 23, for LeBron?
Bridges: I wear 23 for Anthony Davis, when he was in New Orleans, be he changed his number when he went to the Lakers.
Frierson: What is it about Anthony Davis that stands out the most to you?
Bridges: His versatility — he can guard 1-5, he can block shots, he can shoot the 3, he can shoot mid-range and score on all three levels. He's just hard to guard; against a smaller defender, he can post them up, and against the bigs, he can go by them. He can do everything.
Frierson: If you could be great at anything for a day, just to experience it, what would it be? What would you want to be a master at?
Bridges: I kind of like drawing and I would kind of like to be a master at drawing. I think if we come back to this question I will have a totally different answer (laughs). That's just something that's off the top of my head.
Frierson: Well, it's a weird question. Here's one that you can probably answer without thinking too much: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and who would you take with you?
Bridges: I would take me, my girlfriend, my mom, my dad, my stepmom, my stepdad, both of my brothers and my niece and my nephew. And we would go to Italy. They've got a lot of pasta out there and I've just always wanted to go to Italy.
Frierson: How often do you watch basketball highlights of older players on YouTube?
Bridges: Every single day. I can't go a day without watching basketball, whether I'm watching somebody work on post moves, like Hakeem Olajuwon, Dwight Howard, somebody, or I'm watching a game or a rerun of a game. I'm watching something every day.
Frierson: What is something about being your size that the rest of us probably don't understand?
Bridges: Legs, knee problems, getting asked how tall you are every day, asked if you play basketball every day, just people looking at you like you're a freak of nature when you're in public.
Frierson: How about when you get on a plane?
Bridges: I definitely want the exit row every single time. I can't sit in the regular seat, I can't fit in a regular car.
Frierson: Thanks so much for sitting down with me. This has been fun.
Bridges: I've come up with a new answer for what I'd like to be great at for a day. I'd like to be great at flying — drawing and flying. I know I want to travel and if I could fly myself that would be even better. Put my life in my own hands rather than in somebody else's.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Staff Writer
Georgia men's basketball senior Braelen Bridges stands 6-foot-11, an imposing presence for anyone driving in the paint against the Bulldogs. Now just imagine him standing on the pitcher's mound at Foley Field.
Bridges grew up playing baseball and basketball, loving both sports, and if it wasn't for a broken arm in high school he might have decided to focus on seeing how far he could go as a pitcher. Late in high school, the Atlanta native chose basketball, starting his collegiate career at Northwest Florida State before transferring to UIC (the University of Illinois at Chicago) for two seasons and then coming to Georgia.
Through 29 games, Bridges was second on the team in scoring (12.7 ppg), second in rebounding (5.6 rpg) and his shooting percentage of 63.7% leads the team and ranks 30th nationally. During a recent Quick Chat, Bridges talked about his first dunk, the life of a tall person, baseball, his admiration for Anthony Davis, and much more. Here's some of what he had to say:
Frierson: As a guy that never got near the rim, I always ask about first dunks. Do you remember your first dunk?
Bridges: My first dunk was in eighth grade going into ninth. I was at the New Birth church in Atlanta with my cousin, and we just kept trying to dunk and trying to dunk and I eventually got it.
I was tall so everyone was like, "You need to be dunking!" It was just something where I was like, I'm going to get it today. I was determined to dunk the ball that day.
Frierson: Were you trying to dunk all the time in your next game?
Bridges: If I was open, I was definitely going to try, but I didn't get a chance to.
Frierson: Were you always the tall kid in your classes or did you have one big growth spurt?
Bridges: I've always been the tallest. Pretty much every team I've played on, I've been the tallest. I've been playing basketball and baseball since I was 3 years old so I've been the tallest a long time — tallest pitcher and tallest center all my life.
Frierson: How close did you come to choosing baseball and seeing how far you could go in that sport?
Bridges: I took baseball very seriously and I played all the way up until 11th and 12th grade, but I broke my arm and that made me turn to basketball even more. I already played basketball before that but my main focus was baseball. I played travel baseball all my life and I never played AAU basketball — I just played in high school. My main focus was baseball until I broke my arm and then I started putting in the extra work in basketball, played AAU, went to a JUCO (junior college), and now here I am.
Frierson: What's something you could eat every day and never get tired of it?
Bridges: Pasta, for sure. I like chicken alfredo, chicken and shrimp alfredo — anything pasta. I just love pasta and I like the alfredo sauce, not the red sauce.
Frierson: Speaking of food, you spent a few years in Chicago, so how do you feel about the Chicago-style deep-dish pizza?
Bridges: At first I thought it was weird, but I like cheese and there is a lot of cheese. Deep-dish has a lot of cheese — you can tell them to go light on the sauce and then it's really, really good.
Frierson: And for somebody that grew up in Atlanta, what were those Chicago winters like?
Bridges: They were very crazy. I like shoes a lot but you can't wear your shoes you like in Chicago, you have to wear boots. Big jackets, boots, stuff like that or you'll freeze to death (laughs).
I came home with a lot of big jackets, big boots, thermal stuff that I don't need to wear anymore.
Frierson: If you could play with or against anyone in history, who would it be?
Bridges: I would want to play with LeBron (James) and Anthony Davis. Davis is my favorite player and I just like the way LeBron plays, how he gets everybody involved. He's the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all-time) to me.
Frierson: Is that why you wear No. 23, for LeBron?
Bridges: I wear 23 for Anthony Davis, when he was in New Orleans, be he changed his number when he went to the Lakers.
Frierson: What is it about Anthony Davis that stands out the most to you?
Bridges: His versatility — he can guard 1-5, he can block shots, he can shoot the 3, he can shoot mid-range and score on all three levels. He's just hard to guard; against a smaller defender, he can post them up, and against the bigs, he can go by them. He can do everything.
Frierson: If you could be great at anything for a day, just to experience it, what would it be? What would you want to be a master at?
Bridges: I kind of like drawing and I would kind of like to be a master at drawing. I think if we come back to this question I will have a totally different answer (laughs). That's just something that's off the top of my head.
Frierson: Well, it's a weird question. Here's one that you can probably answer without thinking too much: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and who would you take with you?
Bridges: I would take me, my girlfriend, my mom, my dad, my stepmom, my stepdad, both of my brothers and my niece and my nephew. And we would go to Italy. They've got a lot of pasta out there and I've just always wanted to go to Italy.
Frierson: How often do you watch basketball highlights of older players on YouTube?
Bridges: Every single day. I can't go a day without watching basketball, whether I'm watching somebody work on post moves, like Hakeem Olajuwon, Dwight Howard, somebody, or I'm watching a game or a rerun of a game. I'm watching something every day.
Frierson: What is something about being your size that the rest of us probably don't understand?
Bridges: Legs, knee problems, getting asked how tall you are every day, asked if you play basketball every day, just people looking at you like you're a freak of nature when you're in public.
Frierson: How about when you get on a plane?
Bridges: I definitely want the exit row every single time. I can't sit in the regular seat, I can't fit in a regular car.
Frierson: Thanks so much for sitting down with me. This has been fun.
Bridges: I've come up with a new answer for what I'd like to be great at for a day. I'd like to be great at flying — drawing and flying. I know I want to travel and if I could fly myself that would be even better. Put my life in my own hands rather than in somebody else's.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
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. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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