A memorable motto

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By Mike Jones

A strip on the size-18 Nikes of Washington Wizards rookie JaVale McGee bears a peculiar phrase, written neatly in black Sharpie.

"Kill + Mode = Cheese."

Uh, come again?

Ask the 7-foot center the origin and he shrugs it off. "Oh, it's just a saying," he says dryly. But what does it mean?

"Well, if you're in kill mode, like a mode where you feel like no one can stop you, and you just work hard and no one can stop you, then you get cheese - success," McGee says. "It's just something my cousin and I thought up in high school."

Dig a little deeper into that 20-year-old mind. Watch him closely on the practice court or in the first five games of his career. He has taken advantage of every minute given him, producing impressive flashes, regardless of how limited or extensive the playing time. It becomes evident that "Kill + Mode = Cheese" is more than a saying.

For McGee, selected by the Wizards 18th overall out of Nevada in June's draft, "Kill + Mode = Cheese" is a mantra. It echoed in his head Dec. 27, 2007, when he faced North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, swatted the eventual NCAA player of the year's first two shots into the stands and finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocks.

Kill + Mode = Cheese.

That game was McGee's coming-out party. It was also when Wizards vice president of player personnel Milt Newton fell in love with McGee and sold team president Ernie Grunfeld on the super-talented, athletic prospect as a slender yet muscular pogo stick with a 7-6 wingspan and basketball-woven genetics.

His father, George Montgomery, was a second-round pick of the Portland Trail Blazers in 1985. His mother, Pamela McGee, was an NCAA champion and an All-American at Southern Cal, the winner of a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics and a WNBA title in Sacramento.