N.J. girls basketball legend returns home to coach her alma mater

WNBA star Tamecka Dixon's jersey retired at Linden High School

Tamecka Dixon enters the gymnasium through a tunnel of Linden High School students at Linden High School in Linden on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. Dustin Niles | For NJ Advance MeDustin Niles | For NJ Advance Me

A New Jersey girls basketball legend is coming back home.

Tamecka Dixon, a standout star at Linden High school in the 1990s, was officially hired as the head girls basketball coach at Linden on Thursday, the school announced.

“We would like to officially welcome Tamecka Dixon back to Linden to take the reins of our Girl’s (sic) Basketball program,” the school announced on X (formerly Twitter). “Tamecka was a graduate of Linden High School, where she was named a High School All-American by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.”

Dixon was an accomplished player during her high school career at Linden.

She scored 2,092 points, the second-highest total in Union County history. Her number was retired during a ceremony at Linden’s gym in 2020.

She went on to star at the University of Kansas, scoring 1,689 points and was named the Big 12 Player of the Year.

Dixon was drafted in the second round of the 1997 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks and went on to have a successful professional career. Dixon was a three-time WNBA All-Star and won two WNBA championships.

She played 13 years in the WNBA with three different franchises, averaging 9.7 PPG.

Linden went 9-15 last season, losing to eventual-sectional champion Hillsborough in the first round of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 state tournament.

Luis Torres covers girls basketball. You can reach him at ltorres@njadvancemedia.com.

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