Jamila Wideman

Jamila Wideman (born October 16, 1975) is an American lawyer, activist, and former professional basketball player. She is the daughter of author John Edgar Wideman. She is currently the general manager of WNBA team, Washington Mystics.

Wideman was born on October 16, 1975. Her father, John Edgar Wideman, is an African-American author and a professor at Brown University. Her mother, Judith Ann Goldman, is a lawyer.

Until she was 10 years old, Wideman lived in Laramie, Wyoming, where her father taught Creative Writing at the University of Wyoming. In 1986, she moved to Amherst, Massachusetts, where her father accepted a tenured teaching position at the University of Massachusetts.

Wideman started on the Amherst Regional High School Varsity team for six straight years, beginning in 7th grade.

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, with 7 rebounds.^{[citation needed]}

In 1992–1993, 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 10 points.

Her high school basketball team was the subject of a book, In These Girls Hope is a Muscle, by Madeleine Blais. 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.

Wideman attended Stanford University, where she continued with basketball. As a 5'6" point guard, Wideman was the smallest player on her college team.