Wizards pleased with potential

A few summers ago, Pam McGee realized her son JaVale was destined for the NBA.

Sitting on the sidelines of a college league pickup game, McGee watched as her son, then a 6-foot-10 high school junior, jumped up to defend a college-aged opponent’s 3-point shot. McGee swatted the jumper at its apex, caught the ball in the air, brought it down behind his back, dribbled it through his legs, reversed direction and raced the opposite way for a fast-break jam.

“I looked back and said, ’O … K,’” Pam recalled.

From that moment on, Pam never doubted her son. Not when he decided to play at Nevada even though future pro Nick Fazekas cluttered the depth chart. Not when an NBA scout called her son a “basketball Frankenstein,” a monstrous mixture of Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell. Not when JaVale decided to leap to the pros after only two years at Nevada.

Monday at Verizon Center, Washington Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld and coach Eddie Jordan sounded thoroughly convinced of McGee’s potential, as well.

“The franchise is in good hands,” Jordan said.

Added Grunfeld: “I don’t think any of us have any doubts that if he puts in the proper work and the proper time, he could be a factor for us.”

McGee’s head nearly touched the ceiling as he slinked inside the Wizards’ media room and sat down at the podium beside Jordan and Grunfeld. Dressed in a double-breasted gray suit and teal Wizards hat, the 20-year-old quietly answered questions and posed with his new No. 34 jersey.

He explained his decision to leave school early, saying that because “you never know what could happen” he felt it was a good time to “take the chance.” He dead-panned that his mother had him dribbling a basketball “out of the womb.” And he talked humbly about working hard and trying to “have a role” on his new team.

His mother - who won two NCAA championships as an All-American at Southern Cal, a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics and a WNBA title with the Sacramento Monarchs - was not as reserved about her son’s potential.

“The basketball gods got together and said, ’Let’s make a basketball player,’” McGee said. “’And let’s name him JaVale McGee.’”

Wherever her basketball career took her, Pam brought young JaVale along, often leaving him in a stroller on the sideline while she practiced. JaVale attended four high schools in as many years, playing his senior year at Chicago’s Hales Franciscan, which Pam said prepared him for the future.

“You don’t survive in a place like that if you’re not a baller,” Pam said. “That’s what he is - a baller.”

After McGee popped up on Washington’s radar screen last winter, Wizards vice president of player personnel Milt Newton traveled to Chapel Hill, N.C., in December to watch the Nevada center go head to head with North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough.

McGee impressed Newton, blocking Hansbrough’s first two shot attempts and finishing the game with four blocks, 14 points and seven rebounds.

Newton watched McGee in person twice more during the season, and Wizards brass reviewed extensive film on the prospect. McGee was invited to work out for Washington last month, but his agent, Roosevelt Barnes, was hesitant, believing McGee wouldn’t be left on the board by the time the Wizards picked at No. 18. The Wizards did manage to set up a phone interview with McGee and came away impressed.

Jordan, who has known Pam since his days as a Sacramento Kings assistant, said the rookie will start out at center but could get some looks at forward as he continues to work on conditioning and fill into his 241-pound frame.

“He adds to our young core,” Jordan said. “He fills a need. You put Nick [Young], Dominic [McGuire], [Oleksiy] Pecherov, Andray [Blatche] and then you have JaVale, you have five positions filled with skill, size, talent for the future. He has a tremendous foundation. Everything is in line.”