Jamila Wideman

Jamila Wideman (born October 16, 1975) is an American female left-handed point guard basketball player and activist.

Early life

Wideman's father, John Edgar Wideman, an African-American author and professor, is the first 2-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and a professor at Brown University. A Rhodes scholar, he grew up indigent in Pittsburgh. He also played 4 years of basketball for the University of Pennsylvania, where he was All-Ivy League. Her mother, Judith Ann Goldman, grew up in a Jewish family in Great Neck, NY, and studied for her law degree in midlife, graduating at age 52.

High school

Wideman started on the Amherst High School Varsity team for 6 straight years, beginning in 7th grade when she was 4' 6" and 80 pounds.

In her senior year, leading her team to the High School State Championship, Wideman averaged 17 points, 6 steals, 6 assists, and 6 rebounds per game. In the State Championship game, she scored 27 points, had 14 steals and 8 assists, and pulled down 7 rebounds.

In 1992-93 Wideman was named USA Today First Team High School All-American, Converse High School All-American, Nike High School All-American, Kodak High School All-American, New England High School Player of the Year, and Massachusetts High School Player of the Year.

University

Wideman then attended Stanford University on a full athletic scholarship from 1993-97; leading the Stanford team as a 4-year starter and captain to three Final Four appearances in the NCAA tournament.

While at Stanford University she completed a double major, earning a B.A. in political science and African-American studies, graduating in 1997.

Professional basketball career

A 5' 6" point guard, the smallest player on her college team, she was selected as the 3rd overall draft pick by the Los Angeles Sparks in the inaugural WNBA draft in the summer of 1997.

Her best year in the WNBA was 1997. Wideman enjoyed a 4-year career in the WNBA, playing for the Los Angeles Sparks, Cleveland Rockers, and Portland Fire.

Wideman spent the 1999-2000 winter season in Israel, playing for "Elitzur Ramla" in the Israeli Basketball League. Her team won the national championship.

Activism

Upon graduation from Stanford, and during the offseasons of the WNBA, she founded and directed the Stanford Athletic Alliance. This bi-weekly program paired young women from East Palo Alto with players from the Stanford Women’s Basketball team for individual mentoring sessions, as well as organized group sessions that allowed the young women to explore various academic areas through hands-on experience. The program continues to run on the Stanford campus.

In 1997 Wideman founded and implemented another youth program called, ‘hoopin’ with jamila’. This program combined basketball skills clinics with a reading and writing program targeted at young women of color incarcerated in the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles. The program was funded by Nike. USA Today honored the program in 1998 when she was named “Most Caring Athlete” of the year, in large part because of the success of the program. It also earned the National Council on Crime and Delinquency “Community Award,” given each year to programs that attempt to provide creative alternatives to juvenile incarceration.

Writing

Wideman collaborated with Juniper Lesnik to publish an article on playground basketball in the Sunday New York Times.

Miscellaneous

In the 9th grade, during the only year in which Wideman played tennis, she was the Western Mass Tennis Singles Champion and was named to the All-Western Mass Team.

In the 11th grade, Wideman was her league javelin throw champion. In the 12th grade, she was her league and Western Mass javelin champion, and finished 5th in the state championships.

In the 11th grade she was also the Western Mass 100-meter dash champion. The next year she was her league 400-meter champion, and anchored the Western Mass first place 400-meter relay team.

Her high school basketball team was the subject of a book, "In These Girls Hope is a Muscle," by Madeleine Blais (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995, ISBN 0-87113-572-8) Wideman graduated from New York University Law School

She lives in Brooklyn, New York.