Carlos Strong barreled toward the basket. With a defender in his path, most high school freshmen likely would have compromised for a contested layup or found an open pass, but not Strong.
Cedar Shoals’ young star took flight for a dunk, receiving a violent smack from his challenger in the process. Strong underwent a head injury assessment, although brief.
“I asked him one thing,” former Cedar Shoals coach Leo Scott said. “I said, ‘You OK?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ He scored 30 points in that ball game, and you just knew.”
Scott, who coached Strong from seventh grade until he went to the University of Georgia, said that’s when he began to see the archetype of a professional athlete.
Nearly 30 years after signing his first NBA contract, Strong’s 12-year professional basketball career — one that spanned three continents — is firmly in the rearview. Today, he said he’s back where he belongs: coaching basketball and raising a family in Northeast Georgia.
“I missed the Southern atmosphere (while playing),” Strong said. “I’m a country boy. I hunt, I fish, so I missed all that, and I had always wanted to raise my kids in the Athens area.”
In June, Strong was hired to replace Larry Brown as the head coach of the Oglethorpe County boys basketball team, a decision made in-large part due to Strong’s experience in college and at the pro level.
“A lot of kids want to go to the next level and play, and a lot of kids have dreams when they’re a little kid of playing in the NBA,” OCHS co-athletic director Mike Holland said. “He can comment on all of that.”
His legacy on the sideline is a work in progress, but on the court, Strong is still considered one of Athens’ most decorated high school athletes.
In 1992, he was named to the McDonald’s All-American team as one of the top five seniors in the nation. The 6-foot-8 Strong also won the All-American Slam Dunk Contest.
“I probably had 15 (coaches) come to my house — all Division I schools,” Strong said. “Rick Pitino came to my house several times. I mean, I was recruited by everybody in the country.”
But when it came down to making a decision to play in college, Strong couldn’t shake the feeling that he was best off in the town that had fostered his rise to stardom. Despite compelling pitches from some of the top programs in the country, he stayed home to play for UGA under head coach Hugh Durham.
“I just bleed red and black, man, I bleed it,” Strong said. “I love my Bulldogs, so it was an easy decision for me.”
Strong started all four years at UGA, helping the Bulldogs to their second and most recent Sweet 16 appearance in 1996. He ranks among Georgia’s all-time leaders in rebounds (739, 10th) and points (1,411, 14th).
It was during his junior year, though, when chronic injury concerns arose. Strong lost feeling in his left leg while playing in an exhibition game, revealing a bulging disc in his lower back that required surgery.
Strong went undrafted in 1996 and signed with the Charlotte Hornets as a free agent, but re-aggravated his back during his first season with the team. Once again, surgery was required.
“I lost a step, and I lost a little bit of my athletic ability,” he said. “I was blessed to continue to play for as long as I did after two back surgeries.”
A broken wrist as a member of the Dallas Mavericks ultimately spelled the end for Strong’s time in the NBA.
In 2004, he made the difficult, but calculated decision to take his game to Europe. The former All-American played in Italy and France, where he was “treated like a king,” but initially struggled adjusting to life away from the NBA.
“There’s something very humbling about being cut and not being able to be in the NBA,” Strong said. “And I think that was a hard transition for me at first, but once I got comfortable and accepted the fact that I was going to be here, I began to love it.”
Strong moved to Argentina in 2006 and played for two of the country’s most historic athletic clubs. He retired two years later and returned to Georgia where he’s lived since.
Before coaching basketball at Oglethorpe County, Strong was the head coach at Athens Christian for three years. He also leads Strong Basketball, a non-profit organization dedicated to youth basketball development.
Following the Patriots’ first winning season in 19 years, he arrived at OCHS hoping to channel momentum from last year’s campaign, while imparting his own unique influence. Despite a losing season in 2025, Strong believes a culture shift is well underway at Oglethorpe County.
“I want to build men,” he said. “We might not have any NBA players, but what we are going to have, 100% of, are fathers, husbands and young men in the community. I want to make sure they have a good understanding of: it’s more to it than just you.”