During winter in Anchorage, Alaska, the sun can set by 3:45 in the afternoon. In high school, Trajan Langdon would go outside three hours before a 7 p.m. tipoff. In the dark, he would think about that night’s game. Who he was playing. How they would guard him. He tried to visualize how it would unfold — a technique his father had taught him. ‘Once you get in the game and it’s happening, it will feel like you’ve already played before and you won’t be as stressed, and you will react a lot quicker,’ Langdon said. ‘So why wouldn’t you do that to the mind as well?’
Trajan Shaka Langdon was born May 13, 1976, in Palo Alto, California, and moved to Anchorage as a young child. His mother, Gladys, is a social worker. His father, Dr. Steve Langdon, is a professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska Anchorage who earned his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1977. His life’s work has been the study of the Tlingit people of southeastern Alaska. He authored The Native People of Alaska. Trajan traveled with his father on anthropological trips through southeastern Alaska, into villages where basketball heritages go back to the early days of the sport. His father told Sports Illustrated: ‘The Tlingits are a historically aggressive people. They had armor and everything. Their villages have basketball heritages that go back to the early days of the sport.’ The anthropologist’s view was also the basketball player’s view: Steve Langdon had played among the Tlingits on the Craig town team in the 1970s.
His first name comes from a Roman emperor. His middle name, Shaka, from a Zulu king. His father entered him into track and field and free-throw shooting competitions. Steve prepared pregame meals — grilled chicken, mac and cheese, peas — served four hours before game time. ‘He had done his research,’ Langdon said.
At East Anchorage High School, Langdon set the state 4A record with 2,200 career points, was a three-time Alaska State Player of the Year (the first to win it more than twice), led East to three consecutive state championships, and earned McDonald’s All-American honors (winning the three-point contest). He received the Dial Award as the nation’s top male student-athlete. The Alaska Sports Hall of Fame: he ‘single-handedly raised the profile of Alaska high school basketball in the Lower 48 states.’
Before Langdon, no Alaskan male had ever played for a Top 20 college program. Sports Illustrated sent a reporter in January 1994 and captured the absurdity: an assistant coach from the Midwest had flown 4,000 miles to watch practice in silence. Bobby Knight, Krzyzewski, and Dean Smith were all spotted in Anchorage — SI reported top coaches had been found ‘in library carrels poring over the November 1991 issue of National Geographic.’
He was also a gifted baseball player. A scout discovered Langdon playing catch with his father in a parking lot during his Duke recruiting visit. The San Diego Padres drafted him in the sixth round of the 1994 MLB Draft — ahead of future All-Stars Carl Pavano and Plácido Polanco. He signed for $230,000 and spent three summers in the Padres’ minor league system while at Duke. In 12 high school baseball games as a senior, he hit .333 with four home runs and struck out eleven batters in the league championship.