"Mosswood Park is home to many basketball legends, but along with them there are many that never made it off the streets. " -- Rafi ponet, 6th grade
“He was better than me, better than Antonio [Davis], better than Jason [Kidd]. He was better than everybody.”-- Gary Payton.
Mosswood Park is home to many basketball legends, but along with them there are many that never made it off the streets.
The park has a rich and unusual history, the land was originally owned by J. Mora Moss and his wife Julia Wood where they built their estate in 1864. Their land stretched from where Telegraph Avenue is now to Broadway which is considerably bigger than present-day Mosswood. In 1880, at the age of 71, Moss died of a protracted sickness and Wood died in 1904. They had no children so the house was never passed down.
Frank K. Mott was mayor of Oakland at the time Wood passed away and, in 1907, Mott passed a bond that helped pay to build what are now some of Oakland’s most famous and used parks.
Included in these parks was Mosswood, along with Bushrod Park, DeFremery Park, and Lakeside Park.
Oakland is one of the greatest cities in the US when it comes to basketball. The list of all time NBA greats from Oakland is pretty deep, the first players to come to mind are Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, 11 time NBA champion Bill Russell, ten time All Star Jason Kidd, and nine time All Star and 1996 Defensive player of the year Gary Payton. When Payton was playing high school ball for Skyline Highschool, he played pick up ball at Mosswood. He played at Mosswood—and other parks—with Kidd and other future NBA and college players.
There was another player, though, so exceptionally good that even these NBA legends looked up to him. A player that could dunk over a car. A player that could shoot the ball like no one had seen. A player named Demetrius “Hook” Mitchell.
Kamal Patel, who grew up in The Travel Inn, a motel that his parents own and he still owns today, located about a block from Mosswood, was lucky enough to see one of Mitchell’s dunks in person.
“I remember a lot of people there and the excitement in the air. There were actually a few guys doing dunks but Hook outshined them, and when he dunked over a car, it was like a game winner in the playoffs. People jumping and yelling loud,” Patel recalls.
Although Mitchell was a phenomenal player, his life was tough. He started smoking marijuana at age ten, he said in the documentary about his life, Hooked. Mitchell also said in the documentary that local drug dealers would give him 100 dollars or an ounce of cocaine for every dunk he did during his senior season at McClymonds High School.
“The streets grab you up man,” said Mitchell. “I know it’s drugs controlling me and messing me up, but at the time you’re so far in, you’re running from the truth.”
These things messed up Mitchell’s life in a way no human being could ever do. No matter how hard he tried to stop, he couldn’t.
Eventually it was all too much. Mitchell could’t live the dream. Couldn't make it to the league.
He should have and knows it. “Everybody can tell you I’m supposed to be playing in the NBA right now. This should be my 11th or 12th year in the league,” he said in the documentary.
“He could do so many more things than we did,” Kidd said in an interview. “We could only dream about jumping the way he could, and shooting the way he could from way beyond the 3-point line. Hook was stocky and pit-bull strong.”
Or as Alonzo Carter, an assistant football coach at San Jose State who has known Hook since second grade said, “Hook was the biggest ‘What if?’ you’ve ever seen. He could play basketball, football, baseball, kickball. There was nothing like Demetrius ‘Hook’ Mitchell. Nobody close.”
“He loved the game so much.” said Patel.
Mitchell wasn’t done being in headlines. On December 25th 2020, Mitchell was announced dead. Died of drug overdose, gone. People were devastated.
Carter said that he was in a “weird space mentally,” and that it “shook him up.”
But, despite all the news attention about his death, Mitchell wasn’t dead. He was spending Christmas in jail.
Although Mitchell’s story is not a happy one, Mosswood is still home to many good memories.
“I have been there all my life, one block away and I spent most of my childhood at Mosswood, every day after school and weekends until the sun came down,” Patel remembered. “I experienced so much from just being around older folks from the neighborhood and also made lifelong relationships with people my own age.”
With Mosswood making renovations and adding a pool soon it is sure to be better than ever, but sometimes it’s good to look at the past and see how we got to this point.
Mosswood Park is home to many basketball legends, but along with them there are many that never made it off the streets.
The park has a rich and unusual history, the land was originally owned by J. Mora Moss and his wife Julia Wood where they built their estate in 1864. Their land stretched from where Telegraph Avenue is now to Broadway which is considerably bigger than present-day Mosswood. In 1880, at the age of 71, Moss died of a protracted sickness and Wood died in 1904. They had no children so the house was never passed down.
Frank K. Mott was mayor of Oakland at the time Wood passed away and, in 1907, Mott passed a bond that helped pay to build what are now some of Oakland’s most famous and used parks.
Included in these parks was Mosswood, along with Bushrod Park, DeFremery Park, and Lakeside Park.
Oakland is one of the greatest cities in the US when it comes to basketball. The list of all time NBA greats from Oakland is pretty deep, the first players to come to mind are Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, 11 time NBA champion Bill Russell, ten time All Star Jason Kidd, and nine time All Star and 1996 Defensive player of the year Gary Payton. When Payton was playing high school ball for Skyline Highschool, he played pick up ball at Mosswood. He played at Mosswood—and other parks—with Kidd and other future NBA and college players.
There was another player, though, so exceptionally good that even these NBA legends looked up to him. A player that could dunk over a car. A player that could shoot the ball like no one had seen. A player named Demetrius “Hook” Mitchell.
Kamal Patel, who grew up in The Travel Inn, a motel that his parents own and he still owns today, located about a block from Mosswood, was lucky enough to see one of Mitchell’s dunks in person.
“I remember a lot of people there and the excitement in the air. There were actually a few guys doing dunks but Hook outshined them, and when he dunked over a car, it was like a game winner in the playoffs. People jumping and yelling loud,” Patel recalls.
Although Mitchell was a phenomenal player, his life was tough. He started smoking marijuana at age ten, he said in the documentary about his life, Hooked. Mitchell also said in the documentary that local drug dealers would give him 100 dollars or an ounce of cocaine for every dunk he did during his senior season at McClymonds High School.
“The streets grab you up man,” said Mitchell. “I know it’s drugs controlling me and messing me up, but at the time you’re so far in, you’re running from the truth.”
These things messed up Mitchell’s life in a way no human being could ever do. No matter how hard he tried to stop, he couldn’t.
Eventually it was all too much. Mitchell could’t live the dream. Couldn't make it to the league.
He should have and knows it. “Everybody can tell you I’m supposed to be playing in the NBA right now. This should be my 11th or 12th year in the league,” he said in the documentary.
“He could do so many more things than we did,” Kidd said in an interview. “We could only dream about jumping the way he could, and shooting the way he could from way beyond the 3-point line. Hook was stocky and pit-bull strong.”
Or as Alonzo Carter, an assistant football coach at San Jose State who has known Hook since second grade said, “Hook was the biggest ‘What if?’ you’ve ever seen. He could play basketball, football, baseball, kickball. There was nothing like Demetrius ‘Hook’ Mitchell. Nobody close.”
“He loved the game so much.” said Patel.
Mitchell wasn’t done being in headlines. On December 25th 2020, Mitchell was announced dead. Died of drug overdose, gone. People were devastated.
Carter said that he was in a “weird space mentally,” and that it “shook him up.”
But, despite all the news attention about his death, Mitchell wasn’t dead. He was spending Christmas in jail.
Although Mitchell’s story is not a happy one, Mosswood is still home to many good memories.
“I have been there all my life, one block away and I spent most of my childhood at Mosswood, every day after school and weekends until the sun came down,” Patel remembered. “I experienced so much from just being around older folks from the neighborhood and also made lifelong relationships with people my own age.”
With Mosswood making renovations and adding a pool soon it is sure to be better than ever, but sometimes it’s good to look at the past and see how we got to this point.