Pamela McGee was an All-American at USC who won back-to-back NCAA titles, an Olympic gold medal in the 1984 L.A. Games, was the second overall pick of the 1997 WNBA draft at the age of 34, and is the mother of Washington Wizards big man JaVale McGee.
If JaVale McGee’s mother was anybody else, it might be more funny that the NBA big man had his mom speaking out in defense of his recent comments. Instead it’s only sort of funny. Game respects game, Ms. McGee.
As for JaVale leaving the NBA players’ union meeting in L.A. recently and offering the quote that some players are “ready to fold”, Mother McGee said her son’s comments were “misconstrued”.
This according to the Washington Post:
“JaVale McGee was asked if some players were ready to give in and he replied, “There’s definitely some guys in there saying that they’re ready to fold, but the majority are willing to stand strong.”
Pam McGee said too many people are ignoring McGee’s overall sentiment. “He basically stated the majority of the guys are standing strong and they support the union,” she said.
To be fair, if you read his whole quote, that is what he said and I agree with his mom. In times like this though, the union can’t afford to show any signs of weakness (which is probably something along the lines of what Derek Fisher told JaVale when he scolded him about it). Pam McGee continued:
“He comes from a blue-collar town. He was born in Flint, Mich., a union-based town. He believes in the union and is in support of his colleagues. He only left the meeting because he had to go on a USO tour.”
There is also a good chance that by the time JaVale McGee is done with his USO tour, George Cohen will still be instructing David Stern to close his eyes and fall backwards into the arms of Derek Fisher and Billy Hunter during a team-building exercise inside a meeting room filled with cold pizza and left over spaghetti. It’s about trust David, just do it already! Good. Now Derek, it’s your turn.
Getting back to JaVale’s comments, it’s not too unfathomable to think that there probably are a large number of NBA players actually ready to fold like he said there were. That group is most likely compromised of all the guys trying to squeak out another year or two of NBA dollars before they’re forced to compete with two more classes of NBA rookies to keep their roster spot. Pam McGee didn’t need to mention that part though, everybody already knows it’s true.
Photo: Los That Sports Blog
