Kidd became one of the latest in a long line of nationally prominent basketball players from Oakland. Most, but not all, were African American.
Jim Pollard, a white student at Oakland Technical High School, was selected as a high school All-American in 1940 and a Helms Foundation college All-American at Stanford University in 1942. He led Stanford to the 1942 NCAA championship before beginning a professional career in which he played for four championship teams. He was a four-time NBA All-Star with the Minneapolis Lakers. Pollard was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1978.
Hall of Fame athlete Bill Russell, of McClymonds High School, the University of San Francisco, the U.S. Olympic team, and the Boston Celtics, is the subject of additional material on this website.
Paul Silas, another McClymonds graduate and the former coach of the NBA New Orleans Hornets, was a two-time NBA All-Star and won three NBA championships - two with the Celtics and one with the Seattle Supersonics - in a 16-year pro career.
Gary Payton, of Skyline High School, was a first team All-American at Oregon State in 1989-90 and was named Sports Illustrated's Player of the Year. He averaged 25.7 points, 8.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds in his final college season.
Payton was selected in the first round of the 1990 NBA draft by the Seattle Supersonics, the second player taken overall. He has played in nine All-Star games as of 2003 and has been an All-NBA first team pick twice and second team selection four times. Payton has been selected to the All-NBA defensive team eight consecutive seasons and was the 1995-96 defensive player of the year.
In February 2003, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Antonio Davis, yet another McClymonds graduate, is a member of the NBA's Toronto Raptors as of 2003 and played in the 2001 All-Star game.
Although professional basketball was the last of the three major sports to be integrated 79 percent of NBA players in 2003 are African American. Thirteen of the league's 29 head coaches are African Americans, compared with seven major league baseball managers and three NFL head coaches.
Standards:
11.8 Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post-World War II America.