Early Life
Kidd was born in San Francisco, California and raised in an upper middle class section of Oakland, California. His father Steve was African-American, and his mother Anne is Irish-American. The oldest of 6 children, Kidd attended St. Paschal Baylon school in the Oakland Hills. As a youth, Kidd was highly scouted for AAU teams and tourneys, garnering various all-star and MVP awards. He frequented the city courts of Oakland, where he often found himself pitted against future NBA All-Star Gary Payton. The two still reminisce about the playing days of their youth. During his youth, Kidd also excelled at soccer, baseball as well as other sports.
At St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda, California, under the guidance of coach Frank LaPorte, Kidd led the Pilots to back-to-back state championships, averaging 25 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds and 7 steals his senior season. During that year, he also received a host of individual honors, including the Naismith Award as the nation's top high school player, and was named Player of the Year by PARADE and USA Today. The all-time prep leader in assists (1,155) and the state's seventh-best career scorer (2,661 points), Kidd was voted California Player of the Year for the second time and also a McDonald's All-American. On January 31, 2012, Kidd was honored as one of the 35 Greatest McDonald's All Americans.
After a highly publicized recruiting process, Kidd shocked many fans and pundits alike by choosing to attend the nearby University of California, Berkeley—a school that was coming off a 10–18 season and hadn't won a conference title since 1960—over a number of top-ranked collegiate programs including the University of Arizona, the University of Kentucky, the University of Kansas, and Ohio State University.
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