The vertical jump record at Duke basketball belonged to Zion Williamson — 35.5 inches, set during the physical testing that precedes every season in Durham. It had stood for four years when Sean Stewart arrived on campus in the summer of 2023 and broke it on his first try. Thirty-six inches. The most explosive athlete in Duke history, measured and certified, and it was a freshman who hadn't played a college game.
Stewart was born on February 17, 2005, in Windermere, Florida — the same Orlando suburb where Grayson Allen grew up. Basketball was in his blood, literally. His father, Mike Stewart, played eight seasons in the NBA. His grandfather, also named Mike, was the WCC Player of the Year at Santa Clara in 1972. Three generations of competitive basketball, each one a little closer to the top of the sport. Sean was raised with the understanding that playing at the highest level wasn't an aspiration — it was a family expectation.
At Windermere High School, he was dominant in a way that small-school Florida basketball rarely produces. As a junior, he averaged 20.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, 2.3 steals, and 4.6 blocks per game — a stat line that reads like a video game glitch. He was named Florida Class 7A All-State and earned recruiting interest from Michigan, Georgetown, and Ohio State. But he committed to Duke on December 23, 2021, as a high school junior — choosing Jon Scheyer's program before Scheyer had even coached a game as head coach.
Before enrolling, Stewart transferred to Montverde Academy for his senior season — the same prep powerhouse that had produced RJ Barrett and Dariq Whitehead before him. "Top players want to face off to prepare for the next level," he told the Orlando Sentinel in explaining the move. He was named a McDonald's All-American and won the event's slam dunk competition — the only Duke signee to do that since Zion. In the summer of 2022, he represented the United States at the FIBA U-17 World Cup in Spain and recorded a double-double — 10 points and 10 rebounds — in the gold medal game against the host country. He was seventeen years old, wearing USA across his chest, grabbing boards in Malaga. Then he packed for Durham.