WORK ETHIC PROVES PROPHETIC FOR MCGEE

His mother's core demand helps him win 3 NBA titles, emulate her as Olympic champ

- Melvyn Teoh

Growing up, former National Basketball Association (NBA) star JaVale McGee not only had his mother as a cheerleader, but also his personal basketball coach.

His mum, Pamela McGee, comes with sporting pedigree, having been a former WNBA player and part of the 1984 US team who won the country's first Olympic gold in women's basketball.

More than anything else, it was the work ethic ingrained in him by his mum that has stuck with him since young, said McGee, who is in Singapore for the Sept 18-21 Fiba Intercontinental Cup (ICC).

"She always said 'you don’t have to always be the most talented player, but you always have to be the hardest working player'. So I usually take that into every season I go into," the 37-year-old said in an interview on Sept 17.

Pamela would wake him up at 6am to practise with him before he went to school. In a previous interview, McGee recalled how his mum even made him run in the snow once after a poor practice session.

But such a regime kept him away from complacency and laid the foundation for a successful career in which he bagged three NBA titles – two with the Golden State Warriors (2017, 2018) and one with the Los Angeles Lakers (2020).