NBA player from LeFrak City signs with Pistons
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Hamidou Diallo, who was raised in Queens, signed a two-year, $10.4 million contract with the Detroit Pistons last week. AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
By Jacob Kaye
A LeFrak City-raised basketballer is staying in Detroit after being re-signed to play with the Pistons in the upcoming 2021-2022 NBA season.
Hamidou Diallo signed a two-year contract with the Detroit Pistons for $10.4 million last week, ESPN reported.
The 23-year-old swingman first went to Detroit last year, after being traded midseason by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Last year, he averaged 11.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 52 games.
Diallo attended JHS 157 Stephen A. Halsey for middle school John Bowne High School in Flushing during his freshman and sophomore year. He transferred to a school in Connecticut for his junior and senior year.
The Queens kid went on play basketball at the University of Kentucky and came close to playing in his hometown at the professional level when he was drafted by the Brooklyn Nets in 2018.
The Nets subsequently traded him to the Charlotte Hornets, who then traded him to the Thunder, where he would go on to make his professional debut later that year.
In 2019, he won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
Diallo comes from a long line of professional basketball players with Queens ties.
Metta Sandiford-Artest, who was formerly known as Metta World Peace and Ron Artest before that, played in the NBA for nearly two decades. He’s from the Queensbridge Houses.
Lamar Odom, who played in the NBA from 1999 until 2014 and won several championships along the way, was born in South Jamaica. He played high school ball at Christ the King High School in Middle Village.
Anthony Mason, who for a substantial portion of his NBA career played for New York teams, was born in Florida but raised in Queens. His son, Anthony Mason Jr., played college basketball for the St. John’s University Red Storm.
Perhaps one of the greatest basketball players raised in all of New York City was Bob Cousy, who is widely regarded as the NBA’s first great point guard. While he lived in Manhattan, he played high school basketball at Andrew Jackson High School in St. Albans.
