the voice of great antiquity

“I know people are making a big deal of that play,” she says. “Look, JaVale does that to break up the monotony. Wouldn’t you if you were losing like this? He’s been here for four years and it’s been same ol’, same ol’. I don’t want him to get institutionalized to losing. My son is the future of the NBA. I don’t want him to be part of this culture of losing forever.”

[…]

His mother was his AAU coach from 9 years old to sixth grade, getting up at 6 a.m. to work on drills with him. Trying to toughen up her son in the post when the ball dropped below JaVale’s chest as a child, “I hit him in the chest with my fist,” Pamela said.

“You’re my mother,” the boy would wince, “how could you do that to me?”

Pamela: “You stinkin’ up the gym, that’s why. I’m your coach right now.”