Player Profile: Tamera Young

Name: Tamera Young
Born: October 30, 1986 (21)
Place of Birth: Wilmington, North Carolina
Height: 6-2
Weight: unknown

High School: Laney High School, Wilmington, NC
College: James Madison University
College major: Kinesiology and sports management

Years Pro: None -- rookie year is 2008

Position: Guard

Kudos:

1) McDonald's All-American nominee in high school
2) All time scoring record in the Colonial Athletic Association
3) Led James Madison as a senior to the the third round of the 2008 Women's National Invitational Tournament
4) #8 pick in 2008 WNBA draft - also first player from James Madison ever to be picked in the WNBA draft

Nickname: T. Young, T. Tam (from college)

Profile: Once again, there's not much to tell about Tamera Young. This is a side effect of the coverage of women's basketball in general. If you're an NBA player, I can find out just about anything about you through the internet, down to your elementary school. If you're WNBA, unless you're Lisa Leslie winnowing out information will be difficult.

We do know that Young comes by her basketball pedigree honestly. Both her brother A. J. and older sister Nikia played basketball growing up. Sports runs in the family, her cousin Willie Williams was a cornerback in the National Football League from 1993 to 2005. You might have also heard of Laney High School. There's someone else who graduated from Laney who might be better known as a basketball player -- last name of "Jordan".

Each of the two sisters would play AAU ball until the cost would force one of the two Young girls to give up. Nikia bowed out, and Tamera would be allowed to play under the tight finances.

We know that she likes fashion. We know that she's a self-proclaimed "computer freak". Aside from that, we also know a few minor facts from a WNBA article about Young's being drafted to play for the Dream.

Favorite Book: "B-More Careful." B-More Careful belongs to a genre called "street lit", or "ghetto lit", one of several books written about life growing up black in a poor, urban environment. Urbanbooksource.com has the book listed as the second best street lit novel of all time.

Favorite Movie: "Love and Basketball". A story of a young boy and girl, both good at basketball, both growing up together, both good enough to be in the pros. Even though the young man becomes an NBA star and the young woman has to go to Europe (this story takes place before the WNBA), a romance develops between the two main characters.

Favorite Album: "Mario's new album that just came out." (Probably "Go!" by Mario, an R&B/pop singer.)

Favorite TV show: "The Parkers." A UPN program about a mother and daughter who end up going to college together. Nominated for numerous NAACP Image awards.

Favorite luxury item: "My cell phone." (No information there. Nokia? iPhone?)

Aside from the trivia above, what else we can find out about Young will have to be found by mining her hometown newspapers. She wears #23, which was Jordan's number of course. It looks like Young has taste, if nothing else. Of course, the Dream will be the beneficiary of not only her taste, but her basketball skills.