JaVale McGee Is The Future Of The NBA According To His Mom Pamela

Pamela McGee is a women’s basketball legend. Having won two back-to-back NCAA titles at USC and an Olympic Gold medal. She also won championships in the Spanish, Italian and Brazilian professional basketball leagues. And we can’t forget a stint in the WNBA with the LA Sparks and assistant coaching duties with the Detroit Shock. So, it’s not a stretch to say she knows the game of basketball.

She recently gave comments regarding her son, JaVale McGee who plays for the Washington Wizards. The Wizards are TERRIBLE. JaVale was recently benched during a game after a play where he lobbed it to himself off the back board instead of just laying it in. There’s been a lot of commentary about JaVale and his game, mama Pam had something to add to the discussion.

My son is special. He has gifts you can’t teach: hands, height and heart. If I’m the Wizards and I’m really trying to build a franchise, really committed to rebuilding and developing, I would nurture that talent. I would help a kid like JaVale the best I could.’

My son is the future of the NBA. I don’t want him to be part of this culture of losing forever …. ‘The one thing I never did as a coach, never not once in my career, was throw my players under a bus,’ she said angrily in a clear reference to Flip Saunders’s criticism of McGee’s play earlier this week. ‘If I had a problem, I would take that player in the locker room

As a basketball professional, you do have to at least consider her point of view, correct? She’s his mother too but it largely depends on how the franchise views JaVale in their future plans. To her point, the center position in the NBA is vastly different now than just a few years ago.

She also added:

“Now, let me ask you: If Orlando gets Dwight Howard and they bring in a big man like Patrick Ewing to work with him, and the Lakers get Andrew Bynum and they bring in Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] to work with him, you would think it would make sense to get a coach like that for JaVale, right?”

On this point, I’m torn. The teams she mentioned see their big man as FRANCHISE options, I’m not certain the same can be said for JaVale with the Wizards. McGee also mentioned that in the offseason they pay their own big man coach to work with JaVale so it’s not as if they aren’t putting their money where their mouth is.

I think the Wizards also need a veteran. This team has no identity. This season is clearly a wash. Team Brass need to identify the direction they want to head in and begin taking those steps as soon as possible. John Wall is wasting away there.

Oh, in case you were wondering what position Pam played, Center. Just like her son.