Lakers center JaVale McGee, left, poses for a photo with his mom, former USC star Pamela McGee, during a game between USC and Nevada on Dec. 1, 2018, at the Galen Center. (AP Photo\/Marcio Jose Sanchez)<\/p>\n
When he was a burgeoning young star at Nevada, she would tell him he still hadn\u2019t reached the pros. When he made the NBA, she would tell him he hadn\u2019t won a championship. Now with three rings, there\u2019s one plateau JaVale McGee hasn\u2019t reached that his mom has: Olympic gold.<\/p>\n
\nTime might be running out on those days now that JaVale is in Japan with Team USA basketball.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cShe always talks about, \u2018Yeah, y\u2019all really not doing nothing until you get the championship,\u2019\u201d he said Thursday from Tokyo. \u201cThen I got the championship, and she\u2019s like, \u2018Well, you don\u2019t have the gold medal.\u2019 And now I have an opportunity to get a gold medal. It\u2019ll be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps like no other player in the NBA, McGee has found himself chasing his mom\u2019s legacy throughout his basketball career. Pam McGee\u2019s women\u2019s basketball Hall of Fame berth would have been set by her USC tenure alone: back-to-back national titles, three All-America teams, playing alongside the likes of Cheryl Miller and Cynthia Cooper. But she also secured international history by winning gold in the 1984 Olympics, the first gold medal for the Team USA women in the sport.<\/p>\n
JaVale has always been aware of this history, although some of the details have escaped him. He recently asked Pam if she stayed in the Olympic Village in 1984: \u201cI said, \u2018J, it was in Los Angeles.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though Pam senses she might be losing some leverage in measuring her basketball career against her son, her overwhelming feeling is pride. JaVale was a late addition after Kevin Love stayed behind after camp in Las Vegas, but it doesn\u2019t matter how you get on Team USA \u2013 it\u2019s that you\u2019re ready when it happens, Pam said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always tell him, \u201cWe don\u2019t care how we got in the door \u2013 front door, back door, side door \u2013 as long as we get to the table.\u2019\u201d she said in a phone interview with Southern California News Group. \u201cI got cut from several teams before the Pan American team (in 1983) and then the Olympic team. Eventually, people will recognize the work, those hours you\u2019re putting in the gym.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pam is at the root of her son\u2019s work on the court. She was his first trainer, a role she took as seriously as a drill sergeant. In between the lines, she was never \u201cMom,\u201d but always \u201cCoach.\u201d JaVale quit training with her when he was 13, frustrated by how tough Pam could be. Pam accepted that decision, telling him she didn\u2019t want her role as a coach to come before her role as a mother.<\/p>\n
He came back when he got to high school, and learned that his friends who had kept training with Pam had made varsity, and he had only made JV: \u201cHe understood that the varsity players got all the attention from the cute girls,\u201d Pam said with a snicker.<\/p>\n
That pressure has helped build out of the legacy of the McGee family on the court: Pam and Paula, identical twins, were foundational pieces of the Trojans\u2019 basketball dynasty (the subject of the HBO documentary \u201cWomen of Troy\u201d). JaVale has played in the NBA for more than a decade now, and Imani McGee played in the WNBA \u2013 making Pam the only former WNBA player to have children who played in the NBA and WNBA.<\/p>\n
But as proud as the on-court pursuits have made her, she gushes about her children off the court more: Imani is pursuing a law degree, and what makes Pam most proud of JaVale is how often she hears those around him tell her what a nice person he is.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that we all want when we look at our children: We want them to be resilient and good people,\u201d she said. \u201cAll kinds of people, from the ushers, to the janitors, and the fans, to the lady in Cleveland who gave me my COVID test one time, say, \u2018We love your son. He\u2019s the kindest, nicest person we ever met.\u2019 And they try their hardest to get to me, to go out of their way to tell me that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pam recently went viral for an unfortunate reason. On an Olympic conference call, a reporter asked JaVale if his mother was still alive. JaVale squinted skeptically: \u201cYes, she\u2019s still alive. That\u2019s a weird question to ask somebody, but keep going.\u201d JaVale later posted a picture of Pam working out at a gym. (The reporter told SCNG that he had lost a parent and didn\u2019t wish to be insensitive before asking a follow-up question about their conversation when he made Team USA.)<\/p>\n
When told about the question, Pam audibly gasped. She\u2019s a public figure with several social media accounts, and had tweeted about her son\u2019s inclusion onto Team USA earlier in the week. She took offense that the reporter would have asked the question without research on the world stage, offering a well-known quote: \u201cBetter to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the overriding feeling she has is joy for JaVale, who FaceTimed her from the Team USA bus on the way to the opening ceremonies in Tokyo. The men were riding with the women, and JaVale noted that Team USA coach Dawn Staley \u2013 who Pam played against during her pro career \u2013 was also on board.<\/p>\n
Pam still remembers how special winning the 1984 gold medal felt. Of millions of people playing basketball all over the world, only 12 women earned the right to be called the best that year, Pam said. Even though the exclusivity element made it unique, Pam has always been one to share success with family: Moments after receiving gold on the podium, Pam sought out her sister Paula in the crowd and wrapped the medal around her neck, dissolving both women into tears.<\/p>\n
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Simone Biles\u2019 Adoption Story is Inspirational: \u201cMy Parents Saved Me\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n