Carla Renee McGhee (born March 6, 1968 in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

) is an American former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player most notable for her career at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

. She was injured in a car crash in 1987 and was in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

for 47 hours, suffering brain injuries and breaking nearly every bone in her face. She was told she'd never play again. She was a member of the gold medal-winning 1996 Olympic Team. As a member of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, McGhee won two national championships at Tennessee (1987 and 1989) in three-tournament appearances. She averaged 6.1 points per game and 5.1 rebounds per game for her collegiate career. She was named to the 1987 Tennessean All-Freshman team. She played one season in the ABL for the

Atlanta Glory The Atlanta Glory was a women's professional basketball team in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a member of the American Basketball League. The Glory played its home games in Forbes Arena. The team folded before the start of the abortive third ABL se ...

, averaging 8.2 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game in 26 games. She has played six pro seasons abroad in Germany (1990–91, 1998), Spain (1991–93) and Italy (1993–95). McGhee was a Spanish League and Spanish/Italian League All-Star in 1993. She played for the

Orlando Miracle The Orlando Miracle were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Orlando, Florida. It began play in the 1999 WNBA season. The Miracle relocated, in 2003, to Uncasville, Connecticut, where the team became the Connecticut Su ...

in the WNBA from 1999 to 2002.Basketball Reference
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USA Basketball

McGhee was named to the team representing the US at the 1987

William Jones Cup The R. William Jones Cup (), also known as the Jones Cup, is an international basketball tournament organized by the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) held annually since 1977 in Taiwan. It was named in honor of basketball promoter ...

competition in

Taipei, Taiwan Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. The team won all seven games to win the gold medal for the event. The USA was down at halftime in the opening game against Japan, but came back in the second half to win, helped by 15 points from Campbell. McGhee averaged 7.4 points per game over the seven games. McGhee was selected to be a member of the USA team invited to the 1994 World Championships. The preliminary rounds were held in

Hobart, Tasmania Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-smalle ...

while the final rounds were in

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

. The USA team won their first six games before playing Brazil in the semi-final match up. Brazil's

Hortência Marcari Hortência Maria de Fátima Marcari (born September 23, 1959) is a former basketball player who is often considered to be one of the greatest female basketball players in Brazil, along with Paula, and regarded by specialists as one of the world's ...

had a great game scoring 32 points, and the final score of 110–107 favored the Brazilian team. The USA team regrouped to beat the host Australia team 100–95 to take home the bronze medal. McGhee averaged 5.3 points per game. McGhee was selected to represent the US at the 1995 USA Women's Pan American Games, however, only four teams committed to participate, so the event was cancelled. McGhee's final event as a member of the USA team was the 1996 Olympics, held in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

USA. The USA team won all their pool play games by large margins, although they were behind Cuba by as much as seven points before Lisa Leslie's 24 points, helped the USA take over the game. The USA victory over Australia featured a record setting 15 assists by Teresa Edwards, while Johnson was the leading scorer with 24 points. Against Japan, Lisa Leslie set a USA Olympic scoring record with 35 points. In the final, the USA team faced 7–0 Brazil—a team that had beaten the USA squad in the 1991 Pan Am games and the 1994 World Championships. This time, playing before a home crowd of 32,987, the USA team started out very strong, hitting 71.9 per cent of their field goals leading to an eleven points margin at the half. The USA team scored the first eight points of the second half and won the gold medal 111–87. McGhee averaged 3.1 points per game.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGhee, Carla 1968 births Living people African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Germany American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Spain American women's basketball players Atlanta Glory players Basketball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Illinois Goodwill Games medalists in basketball Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball Orlando Miracle players Panathinaikos WBC players Parade High School All-Americans (girls' basketball) Small forwards Sportspeople from Peoria, Illinois Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball players Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games United States women's national basketball team players