Ranson: JaVale makes a nostalgic visit to Reno

The Wolf Pack’s men’s basketball team responded to Saturday’s raucous record crowd of 11,777 at Lawlor Events Center.

The Pack worked hard for 40 minutes to deny in-state rival UNLV a split in sweeping their season series. The Pack picked up the win in front of former Nevada great and current Sacramento Kings center JaVale McGee, an NBA champion and Olympian. McGee had the house rocking with his presence on “his day” in Reno.

McGee’s enthusiasm of cranking the rally siren and walking from section to section in the second half with kids following him like the Pied Piper added to the game’s excitement. It was easy spotting the 7-foot, 275-pound McGee, who has one of the most prolific wingspans for blocking shots and pulling down rebounds.

When he plays defense, McGee sweeps under the basket like a condor.

In coming to the campus Saturday, McGee took a nostalgic ride on Virginia Street and past the dormitory where he lived. His thoughts harkened back to when the campus was much smaller. After arriving at the university, he toured the gym and saw a larger weight room in addition to the smaller one he remembers 18 years ago.

The NBA journeyman, who has played for eight teams since 2008, wasn’t able to attend his induction into the Nevada Athletics Hall of Fame in October because of his pro schedule. Hailed as one of Nevada’s best — if not best athletes — in the school’s history, McGee has snared three NBA Championships, two with Golden State and the third with the Lakers and during the COVID-delayed Summer Olympics in Tokyo three years ago, he played for the United States team that defeated France for the gold medal.

Almost two decades ago, the now 36-year-old McGee made one of the most important decisions in his young life: He accepted former coach Mark Fox’s invitation to come to the “Biggest Little City in the World” and play for the Wolf Pack, one of the top teams in the Western Athletic Conference.

“It was definitely a shock from high school where you (just) played basketball,” McGee told a group of local sportswriters and sports casters Saturday almost two hours prior to tipoff. “Now it’s totally different.”

This was the first time I’ve talked to McGee since he left Nevada for the pros in 2008 and when I was part of the Sierra Nevada Media Group’s team coverage of Wolf Pack basketball. In what was a humbling honor, the other sportscasters at Saturday’s presser waited for me to ask the first question. It felt like a full circle remembering how Fox praised his freshman as “a player to watch” although McGee struggled during the first half of the season.

After Nevada’s 93-77 exhibition win against Chico State four days before the season opener against the University of Alaska Anchorage, Fox said he would play 7-footer David Ellis before the three freshman — McGee, Richie Phillips or Matt LaGrone. Fox focused most of his assessment on Fazekas and power forward Denis Ikovev.

McGee quickly recognized what he needed to do.

Although Fazekas singed the net with 29 points in the first game, McGee added 5 in his college debut. McGee played behind a seasoned team that finished 29-5, 14-2 in league and was ranked 15th in the final AP poll. The Pack’s season ended in the NCAA’s second round, dropping a 78-62 game to Memphis.

McGee, though, came off the bench that season to average 3.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.

As a sophomore, he blossomed with an improved scoring average of 14.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He was named second-team All-WAC honors in 2008 and selected to the WAC All-Defensive Team.

McGee’s play didn’t go unnoticed from the NBA teams. The Washington Wizards drafted him 18th overall.

After two years in Reno, he packed his bags for the East Coast.

When McGee arrived in Reno during the summer of 2006, he was in awe of the glitzy lights of Northern Nevada’s gaming mecca. Once he began working on the hardwood with two of the top players in the WAC, Fazekas and Ramon Sessions, both destined for greatness after their collegiate careers. McGee called them two exceptional men.

“I looked up to them as an 18-year-old skinny-wired kid from Chicago (but he came from Michigan),” McGee explained, smiling and sitting at table draped with the Wolf Pack mascot. When asked, he also leaned forward to flash the three big rings he received the trio of NBA titles.

“It was definitely a blessing, and I remember when coming in with that feeling of this is the real deal with that first practice,” he added.

When asked, McGee said he keeps in contact with several teammates from the two Wolf Pack teams and Fox, now the director of Student-Athlete Relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

McGee’s recollection of Reno’s elevation of 4,505 feet above sea level also drew laughter.

“Going coast-to-coast (dribbling or moving down the entire length of the court) is not a cakewalk,” he said, smiling.

McGee, though, said the university did a good job persuading his mother on the basketball program and the university itself.

Paul Mitchell, a professor in the Reynolds School of Journalism, sealed the deal for McGee to come to Reno in 2006. He met with both JaVale and his mother Pamela, an Olympic gold medalist from USC and inductee in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Mitchell quickly convinced Reno was the right fit for her teenage son.

If other programs were interested in the 18-year-old, their luck ran dry like inexperienced gamblers rolling the dice.

“It’s going to be hard to top this,” he recalled his mother saying after their meeting with Mitchell.

They both had good, first impressions of the campus and still do to this day. If he could, McGee would’ve been more than happy to suit up Saturday and control the boards against the Wolf Pack’s nemesis.

“The school has shown extreme love to me from recruiting to me to when I was here,” he said. “It was an amazing journey for me and the way they treated me and guided me to where I needed to be.

Steve Ranson, editor emeritus of the Lahontan Valley News, was the newspaper’s sports editor when JaVale McGee played for the Wolf Pack.