Pamela McGee

Pamela McGee
Personal information
Born (1962-12-01) December 1, 1962
Flint, Michigan
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight 170 lb (77 kg)
Career information
High school Flint Northern (Flint, Michigan)
College USC (1980–1984)
WNBA draft 1997 / Round: 1 / Pick: 2nd overall
Position Center / Power forward
Number 30
Career history
1997 Sacramento Monarchs
1998 Los Angeles Sparks
Career highlights and awards
2x NCAA champion (1983, 1984)
Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
Medals
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
1984 Los Angeles Team
Pan American Games
1983 Caracas Team
FIBA World Championship for Women
1983 Rio de Janeiro Team
Jones Cup
1984 Taipei Team

Pamela Denise McGee (born December 1, 1962)[1] is an American retired professional women's basketball player and assistant coach. At age 34, she was the second overall pick in the 1997 WNBA Draft. She played in the league for two seasons with the Sacramento Monarchs and Los Angeles Sparks.

McGee grew up in Flint, Michigan, where she attended Flint Southwestern Academy before graduating from Flint Northern High School.

McGee won back-to-back NCAA Championships as an All-American at the University of Southern California, where she was a teammate of twin sister Paula, and Cynthia Cooper and Cheryl Miller. In 1984, she won Olympic gold in Los Angeles before embarking on a professional career that included stints in Brazil, France, Italy and Spain. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. She has been noted as one of the few women basketball players who has won on every level. 2 State Championships in Michigan with a still standing record of 75-0 wins. She then won 2 National Championships at the University of Southern California in the eighties. That same year she graduated as student-athlete in 4 years with a BA in Communications and Social Science. That same year she was the first to win a Gold-Medal in Women's Basketball. She then won World Championships in Barcelona Spain, Brazilian World Championships, and the European Ronchetti Cup with 4-time WNBA MVP Cynthia Cooper. She culminated her career as a coach by winning the 2003 WNBA championship.

McGee has once again made history when both her son and daughter were drafted in the NBA and WNBA. JaVale McGee was the 18th pick in the 2008 NBA draft and Imani was the 10th pick in the 2016 draft, making her the first WNBA mom to have a son and daughter drafted.


USC statistics

Source[2]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1980-81 USC 34 509 54.5% 50.6% 8.6 1.0 15.0
1981-82 USC 27 529 57.5% 63.6% 11.6 1.6 19.6
1982-83 USC 33 608 61.0% 63.2% 10.0 1.3 18.4
1983-84 USC 33 568 59.5% 51.9% 9.7 0.9 17.2
Career 127 2214 58.1% 61.5% 9.9 1.2 17.4

USA Basketball

McGee was selected to be a member of the team representing the USA at the 1983 Pan American Games held in Caracas, Venezuela. The team won all five games to earn the gold medal for the event. McGee averaged 3.4 points per game.[3]

McGee played for the USA National team in the 1983 World Championships, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The team won six games, but lost two against the Soviet Union. In an opening round game, the USA team had a nine-point lead at halftime, but the Soviets came back to take the lead, and a final shot by the USA failed to drop, leaving the USSR team with a one-point victory 85–84. The USA team won their next four games, setting up the gold medal game against USSR. This game was also close, and was tied at 82 points each with six seconds to go in the game. The Soviets Elena Chausova received the inbounds pass and hit the game winning shot in the final seconds, giving the USSR team the gold medal with a score of 84–82. The USA team earned the silver medal. McGee averaged 4.2 points per game.[4]

In 1984, the USA sent its national team to the 1984 William Jones Cup competition in Taipei, Taiwan, for pre-Olympic practice. The team easily beat each of the eight teams they played, winning by an average of just under 50 points per game. McGee averaged 6.5 points per game.[5]

She continued with the national team to represent the USA at the 1984 Olympics. The team won all six games to claim the gold medal. McGee averaged 6.2 points per game.[6][7]

Personal

McGee has a daughter, current WNBA player Imani McGee-Stafford and a son, NBA player and NBA champion JaVale McGee[8], currently with the Los Angeles Lakers. McGee is the first WNBA player to have a child play in the NBA and WNBA.[9] In 2012, she was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She lives in Annandale, Virginia.[10]

The consecutive NCAA championships followed two Michigan state championships at Flint Northern High School. Besides playing in France, Italy and Brazil, she was drafted #2 at 34 years old, into the WNBA. She starred for the Los Angeles Sparks and Sacramento Monarchs.[11]

JaVale McGee is the first son of a WNBA player to ever play in the NBA.[12] His younger half sister, 6'7" Imani McGee-Stafford, also plays in the WNBA for the Atlanta Dream.[13] McGee, with a degree in economics, balanced her international basketball career with raising both children, home schooling, coaching and teaching school in the off season, though the formidable tasks were not without controversy.[14] [15]

References

  1. ↑ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill. "Pamela McGee". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  2. ↑ "USC Media Guide" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  3. ↑ "Ninth Pan American Games -- 1983". USA Basketball. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved October 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Ninth World Championship For Women -- 1983". USA Basketball. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
  5. ↑ "1984 WOMEN'S R. WILLIAM JONES CUP". USA Basketball. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Pamela McGee". sports-reference.com.
  7. ↑ "Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad – 1984". USA Basketball. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  8. ↑ Ivan Carter (1 July 2008). "With an Assist From Mom, McGee Finds Way to NBA". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  9. ↑ "Mother-son legacy a first for WNBA/NBA – NBA – ESPN". ESPN.com. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
  10. ↑ "2000 Greater Flint Afro-American Hall of Fame – Pamela McGee". Archived from the original on January 18, 2014. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Nevada C McGee signs rookie deal with Wizards". ESPN.com. 2008-07-09. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  12. ↑ "Mother-son legacy a first for WNBA/NBA". ESPN.com. 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  13. ↑ "Imani Boyette Follows in Mother's Footsteps, Finds Perfect Fit in Chicago - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  14. ↑ Wnba's Mcgee, Daughter Deserve Better, Chicago Tribune, Melissa Isaacson, October 11, 1998. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  15. ↑ Like Mother, Like Son, The Ringer, Katie Baker, June 7, 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
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