Rising star for Sky came from same high school as MJ

The best male basketball player to come out of Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C., eventually made his way to Chicago.

Of course, that would be Michael Jordan.

What Chicago sports fans might not know is that the best female basketball player to come out of Laney High has also made her way to Chicago.

That would be Tamera Young, an emerging star for the Chicago Sky.

Young, who has been asked by her alma mater to send a Sky jersey and other personal memorabilia back home so a trophy case at the school can be dedicated to both her and Jordan, might not be a household name like His Airness. But in Wilmington, she's just as much basketball royalty.

For as many good athletes that have come and gone at Laney, Young is the only female basketball player in school history, and from the town of Wilmington, to make it to the WNBA.

"A lot of girls there look up to me. It's like, 'She made it, maybe I can try to make it,' " said the 23-year-old Young, who has started the last six games for the Sky in place of injured forward Shameka Christon. Young is averaging 5.6 points per game and had her best outing of the season Thursday with 15 points in a win over the Connecticut Sun.

"It just makes me feel good to know that I actually did something and that I actually can be a role model to kids," Young said. "I've been asked to come back to school and speak, and I did that at Christmas during a tournament. A lot of people when I go home ask me just to talk to their kids one-on-one. I like doing that, telling these kids that your dreams can come true if you work at it."

Young was inclined to dream every time she stepped onto the floor at Laney High.

The emblem at midcourt features the popular Nike image of Michael Jordan soaring with a basketball high in one hand. The floor itself is still the same one that Jordan played on as a teenager.

"When I used to look at pictures of (Jordan) in his Laney uniform and of me in mine, it was just pretty cool, cool to know that we played for the same school," said Young, whose entire team was outfitted with Nike gear and shoes supplied directly by Jordan. "Now I'm in the same pro city as him. That's pretty cool, too."

Young was traded to Chicago from Atlanta 11 games into the 2009 season.

Known as a scorer in high school and in college at James Madison, she was asked to shift her focus when she joined the Sky.

"We needed help on defense and Tamera is a terrific defender when that is her focus," Sky coach Steven Key said. "Her defense has been very important for us. She was the overall key for us (in Thursday's win over Connecticut) and it's that kind of defense that is getting her more and more minutes."

Young, who is long and quick and a former track star in high school, is often assigned to the opposing team's best perimeter player. She says that the first place she looks on the stat sheet after a game is at the points column. But not for her points.

If she holds the player she guarded under her average, she knows she had a good game, no matter what else she does.

"My coach from college jokes with me and says stuff like, 'Since when do you play defense?' " laughed Young, who is also the only player in James Madison history to play in the WNBA. "My role has changed. In college, I had to be more of a scorer. Now, if I want to be on the floor, I know I need to play defense and rebound.

"I just love playing so much. I figure that if that's what I have to do to play, then that's what I'm going to do. I just really want to be on the floor. I just want to play."

Sounds like something another former Laney High star would say.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com