Jamila Wideman
Encyclopedia
Jamila Wideman is an American
female left-handed point guard
basketball player, lawyer and activist.
, 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 in the working-class community of Homewood 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.
Wideman lived in Laramie
, Wyoming
, where her father taught Creative Writing at the University of Wyoming
, until she was 10 years old. In 1986 she moved to Amherst
, Massachusetts
, where her father accepted a tenured teaching position at the University of Massachusetts
.
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, Massachusetts
High School Player of the Year, and High School All-American by the WBCA
. She participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game in 1993, scoring ten points.
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)
While in high school, Wideman published poems on the complexities of her racial identity in her high school newspaper. Shortly after the Los Angeles uprisings of 1992, she wrote and published a poem titled "Black":
I walk the tightrope between the fires
Does anyone know where I fall through?
Their forked daggers of rage reflect my eye
Their physical destruction passes me by
Why does the fire call me?
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 in 1997.
in the inaugural WNBA draft of collegiate players in the summer of 1997.
Wideman enjoyed a 4-year career in the WNBA, playing for the Los Angeles Sparks, Cleveland Rockers
, and Portland Fire
. Her best year in the WNBA was 1997.
Wideman spent the 1999-2000 winter season in Israel
, playing for the Elitzur Ramla
club in the Israeli Basketball League. Her team won the national championship.
During the winter of 2005, Wideman reunited with college teammate Kate Starbird
and played professionally in Ibiza
, Spain
.
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 Nik
e. USA Today
honored Wideman as "Most Caring Athlete" in 1998, 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.
In 2001 Wideman participated in the Connecticut Forum, where she shared the stage with Stanley Crouch, Anita Hill
, Spike Lee
, and Bill Russell
to talk candidly about race.
basketball
in the Sunday New York Times.
Wideman was featured on CBS Sports' "Where Are They Now?" segment of Pride, Passion and Power on January 18, 2009 hosted by Trey Wingo. In it she talks about translating her leadership on the basketball court to the legal court room.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
female left-handed point guard
Point guard
Point guard , also called the play maker or "the ball-handler", is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position – essentially, he is expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that...
basketball player, lawyer and activist.
Early life
Wideman's father, John Edgar WidemanJohn Edgar Wideman
John Edgar Wideman is an American writer, professor at Brown University, and sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.-Early life:...
, an African-American author and professor, is the first 2-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. A Rhodes scholar, he grew up in the working-class community of Homewood in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. He also played 4 years of basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
for the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, where he was All-Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
. 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.
Wideman lived in Laramie
Laramie
Laramie may refer to Laramie, Wyoming, or one of the many things named after it.-Entertainment:*The Man from Laramie, a 1955 American western movie directed by Anthony Mann*The Laramie Project, a 2000 play written and directed by Moisés Kaufman...
, Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, where her father taught Creative Writing at the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
, until she was 10 years old. In 1986 she moved to Amherst
Amherst, Massachusetts
Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, making it the largest community in Hampshire County . The town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, where her father accepted a tenured teaching position at the University of Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts
This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
.
High school
Wideman started on the Amherst Regional High SchoolAmherst Regional High School (Massachusetts)
Amherst Regional High School is a secondary school in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, for students in grades 9–12. Together with Amherst Regional Middle School, it makes up the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District, which comprises the towns of Amherst, Pelham, Leverett, and Shutesbury,...
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
93
Year 93 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Priscinus...
Wideman was named USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
First Team High School All-American, Converse High School All-American, Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
High School All-American, Kodak High School All-American, New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
High School Player of the Year, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
High School Player of the Year, and High School All-American by the WBCA
Women's Basketball Coaches Association
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels.The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches.The mission of the WBCA is:...
. She participated in the WBCA High School All-America Game in 1993, scoring ten points.
In the 9th grade, during the only year in which Wideman played tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, 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
Javelin throw
The javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon...
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)
While in high school, Wideman published poems on the complexities of her racial identity in her high school newspaper. Shortly after the Los Angeles uprisings of 1992, she wrote and published a poem titled "Black":
I walk the tightrope between the fires
Does anyone know where I fall through?
Their forked daggers of rage reflect my eye
Their physical destruction passes me by
Why does the fire call me?
University
Wideman then attended Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
on a full athletic scholarship from 1993-97; leading the Stanford team as a 4-year starter and captain to three Final Four
Final four
Final Four isa sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament, most notably NCAA Division I college basketball tournaments. The term usually refers to the four teams who compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final round...
appearances in the NCAA tournament.
While at Stanford University she completed a double major, earning a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
and African-American studies in 1997.
Professional basketball career
A 5'6" point guard, the smallest player on her college team, Wideman was selected as the 3rd overall draft pick by the Los Angeles SparksLos Angeles Sparks
The Los Angeles Sparks is a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season began...
in the inaugural WNBA draft of collegiate players in the summer of 1997.
Wideman enjoyed a 4-year career in the WNBA, playing for the Los Angeles Sparks, Cleveland Rockers
Cleveland Rockers
This article is about the defunct WNBA team; for the American Basketball Association team, see Cleveland Rockers .The Cleveland Rockers were a Women's National Basketball Association team that played from 1997 until 2003. The Rockers were one of the original eight franchises of the WNBA, which...
, and Portland Fire
Portland Fire
The Portland Fire joined the Women's National Basketball Association in 2000 as the counterpart to the NBA team the Portland Trail Blazers. They played their games at Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. The team folded after the 2002 season, after just three seasons in the league...
. Her best year in the WNBA was 1997.
Wideman spent the 1999-2000 winter season in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, playing for the Elitzur Ramla
Ramla
Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...
club in the Israeli Basketball League. Her team won the national championship.
During the winter of 2005, Wideman reunited with college teammate Kate Starbird
Kate Starbird
Kate Starbird is a former professional basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association and the American Basketball League ....
and played professionally in Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Activism
Upon graduation from Stanford, and during the offseasons of the WNBA, Wideman 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 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
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The program was funded by Nik
Nik
Nik may refer to:*-nik, an English suffix of Slavic origin.*Nik, Cristian Dzwonik, Argentinean cartoonist, creator of Gaturro* A derivative of the name Nicholas...
e. USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
honored Wideman as "Most Caring Athlete" in 1998, 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.
In 2001 Wideman participated in the Connecticut Forum, where she shared the stage with Stanley Crouch, Anita Hill
Anita Hill
Anita Faye Hill is an American attorney and academic—presently a professor of social policy, law and women's studies at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She became a national figure in 1991 when she alleged that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had...
, Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
, and Bill Russell
Bill Russell
William Felton "Bill" Russell is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association...
to talk candidly about race.
Writing
Wideman collaborated with Juniper Lesnik to publish an article on playgroundPlayground
A playground or play area is a place with a specific design for children be able to play there. It may be indoors but is typically outdoors...
basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
in the Sunday New York Times.
Post-basketball accomplishments
Wideman graduated from New York University Law School. She now works as a staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society in New York City.Wideman was featured on CBS Sports' "Where Are They Now?" segment of Pride, Passion and Power on January 18, 2009 hosted by Trey Wingo. In it she talks about translating her leadership on the basketball court to the legal court room.