While most of the game is the same, there are some key differences that distinguish NBA basketball from Olympic basketball.
JaVale McGee followed in the footsteps of his mother, Pamela, by becoming an Olympic athlete.
Prior to his Olympic debut with the U.S. Men's National Team, McGee was asked about his mom during USA basketball's press conference, but it was a rather awkward question by a reporter who clearly did not do basic research or even a simple Google search.
"Hey JaVale, welcome aboard, I’m not sure … is your mom still with us?" the reporter asked.
"Is my mom alive? Yeah, she's still alive," a visibly befuddled McGee responded. "That's a weird question to ask somebody, but keep going."
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McGee later tweeted a photo of his mother at the gym for a workout.
Pamela McGee, 58, is alive and well, tweeting daily for her nearly 13,000 followers. That included a recent tweet about the McGee family making history as mother and son Olympians…
Pamela McGee won gold in the 1984 with the U.S. Women's National Team, and also won a Pan-American Gold Medal and World Championship the year prior. After winning back-to-back NCAA championships with USC in 1983 and 1984 and then playing overseas, Pamela McGee played for the Dallas Diamonds of the Women's Professional Basketball League and for the Sacramento Monarchs and Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA.
Her son, currently a center for the Denver Nuggets, has won three NBA championships during his 13-year career. McGee was a late addition to the Olympic team, replacing Kevin Love. Her daughter, Imani McGee-Stafford, was a 2016 first-round pick in the WNBA draft and currently plays for the Perth Lynx of the Women's National Basketball League.
