Gary Payton Sr.
Gary Payton Sr. is a former professional basketball player who played the point guard position. Widely considered one of the greatest point guards of all time, he is best known for his 13-year tenure with the Seattle SuperSonics, where he holds franchise records in points, assists, and steals. He also played with the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, and Miami Heat. […]
Tara VanDerveer
The consummate teacher, yet always a student of the game, Tara VanDerveer has amassed one of the greatest careers in the history of college athletics. One of a handful of NCAA basketball coaches with more than 1,000 career wins, the legendary Stanford women’s basketball coach cemented her legacy as a pioneer, mentor, role model, and […]
Jason Kidd
Forged under the fiery tough-love tutelage of local point guard legend Gary Payton, Jason Kidd’s hall of fame basketball career began in Oakland under perhaps more scrutiny than any other prep star had ever seen up to that point. In the late eighties and early nineties, the local demand to see Kidd play forced little […]
Tim Hardaway
He played his college ball at the University of Texas, El Paso, known as UTEP, so the move by Tim Hardaway, the crossover dribble, was nicknamed “The UTEP Two-Step.” But Hardaway, originally from Chicago, could do so much more than put the basketball on the floor. The 14th overall pick in the 1989 draft by […]
Bill Cartwright
A three-time All-American and five-time NBA champion, Bill Cartwright’s roots can be traced back to a farming community outside of Sacramento, where he and his six sisters spent summer days chopping sugar beets and hoeing weeds under the sweltering sun. A native of Lodi, Ca. Cartwright was a two-time state player of the year at […]
Kevin Johnson
As a point guard at Cal in the mid-1980s, Kevin Johnson helped end the school’s 26-year postseason drought and was twice named First-Team All Pac-10. Johnson left the school as the team’s all-time leader in points, assists, and steals. Cal retired his jersey. Drafted seventh overall in the 1987 NBA lottery by the Cleveland Cavaliers, […]
Jennifer Azzi
As Stanford’s first All American woman basketball player, Jennifer Azzi led the Cardinal to the school’s first NCAA Women’s Championship in 1990 and received the coveted Naismith Trophy as the nation’s top collegiate woman player that year. She was also the Most Valuable Player of the women’s Final Four. A speedy, sharp-shooting guard, she finished […]
Chris Mullin
Chris Mullin played 13 of his 16 NBA seasons with the Golden State Warriors. A five-time All-Star, he averaged better than 25 points per game for five consecutive seasons (1988-89 through 1992-93), a feat equaled in franchise history only by Wilt Chamberlain. He set team records for games played (807) and steals (1360). He finished […]
Tom Meschery
Tom Meschery is an All-American success story. Born in China in 1938, he came to the U.S. with his parents after WW II. He was an All-American at Lowell High School, San Francisco, and St. Mary’s College, Moraga, CA, and an NBA Star for ten seasons noted as one of the toughest players in the […]
Phil Woolpert
Phil Woolpert was the basketball coach at the University of San Francisco and came to national attention when he led his great 1955 and 1956 teams to NCAA titles. But perhaps more significant was his coaching of the ’57 team, without superstars Bill Russell and Casey Jones, to the NCAA Final Four. His record was […]