Imani Trishawn McGee-Stafford (born October 11, 1994) is an American professional

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. She played college basketball for

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

College

In 2015, while at

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, McGee-Stafford was awarded the Honda Inspiration Award which is given to a collegiate athlete "who has overcome hardship and was able to return to play at the collegiate level". She grew up in a challenging home environment, but overcame the challenge and became a voice for others.

Texas statistics

Source

Professional career

WNBA

McGee-Stafford was drafted 10th overall by the

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 20 ...

in the 2016 WNBA Draft. In her rookie season, she was ranked seventh in the league in blocks per game and was named to the

WNBA All-Rookie Team The WNBA All-Rookie Team is an annual Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) honor given since the 2005 WNBA season to the top rookies during the regular season. Voting is conducted by the WNBA head coaches, who are not allowed to vote fo ...

. In her first playoff game, she broke the WNBA playoff rookie record for blocks in a game with 6. Midway through the 2017 season, McGee-Stafford was traded to the

Atlanta Dream The Atlanta Dream are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded for the 2008 WNBA season. The team is owned by real ...

along with teammate Tamera Young in exchange for

Jordan Hooper Jordan Hooper (born February 20, 1992) is an American basketball player. She last played for the Atlanta Dream of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was an All-American forward at the college level for the University of Nebr ...

and a first-round draft pick. She continued on with Atlanta in 2018 before joining the

Dallas Wings The Dallas Wings are an American basketball team based in Arlington, Texas. The Wings play in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team is owned by a group which is led by chairman Bill Cameron. Greg ...

for the 2019 season.

Overseas

In December 2016, McGee-Stafford moved to Israel to play for Bnot Hertzeliya. In 16 games during the 2016–17 season, she averaged 14.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 2.6 blocks per game. Between November and December 2017, she played in China for Beijing Great Wall of the

Women's Chinese Basketball Association The Women's Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) is the first-tier professional women's basketball league in China. It was established in 2002 as the women's counterpart to the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Current clubs There are cu ...

. She returned to China a year later, where she played for the Liaoning Flying Eagles between October and November 2018. In February 2019, she had a four-game stint in Turkey with Adana Basketbol. On June 13, 2019, McGee-Stafford signed with the

Perth Lynx The Perth Lynx are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Lynx compete in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) and play their home games at Bendat Basketball Centre. For sponsorship reasons, t ...

in Australia for the 2019–20 WNBL season.

WNBA career statistics

Regular season

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Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, , 31, , 16, , 18.9, , .554, , .000, , .660, , 5.6, , 0.6, , 0.6, , 1.3, , 0.9, , 6.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", * , style="text-align:left;",

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, , 22, , 4, , 15.5, , .444, , .333, , .706, , 4.4, , 0.5, , 0.4, , 0.8, , 1.0, , 4.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", * , style="text-align:left;",

Atlanta 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 ...

, , 10, , 0, , 9.2, , .542, , .000, , .500, , 2.9, , 0.2, , 0.1, , 0.7, , 0.3, , 2.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;", Total , , 32, , 4, , 13.5, , .463, , .333, , .652, , 3.9, , 0.4, , 0.3, , 0.8, , 0.8, , 4.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", 2 years, 2 teams , 63 , , 20 , , 16.2 , , .514 , , .333 , , .658 , , 4.8 , , 0.5 , , 0.4 , , 1.0 , , 0.8 , , 5.3

Playoffs

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2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, style="text-align:left;",

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, , 5, , 5, , 20.4, , .500, , .000, , .600, , 8.2, , 0.8, , 0.0, , 2.0, , 1.0, , 8.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", 1 year, 1 team , , 5, , 5, , 20.4, , .500, , .000, , .600, , 8.2, , 0.8, , 0.0, , 2.0, , 1.0, , 8.4

Personal life

McGee-Stafford was married to former

Texas Longhorns football The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate team representing the University of Texas at Austin (variously Texas or UT) in the sport of American football. The Texas Longhorns, Longhorns compete in the NCAA Division I Football ...

player Paul Boyette Jr. in 2015, but the couple divorced in 2017. She is the daughter of former WNBA player

Pamela McGee Pamela Denise McGee (born December 1, 1962) is an American former professional women's basketball player, 2012 Women's Basketball Hall of Famer, and mother of two professional basketball players. She is the first WNBA mom to have a son and dau ...

, the younger maternal half-sister of current

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

player JaVale McGee, and a cousin of NFL player

Jarron Gilbert Jarron Kendrick Gilbert (born September 30, 1986) is a former American football defensive end. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He played college football at San Jose State. Gilbert has also been a m ...

. She also appeared on ''

Let's Make a Deal ''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is an American television musical comedy variety-game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created an ...

'' with her grandmother on March 8, 2018 and received a pair of scooters. In the spring of 2020, she announced that she is stepping away for the next two WNBA seasons to pursue a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree from

Southwestern Law School Southwestern Law School is a private law school in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles. It is accredited by the American Bar Association and enrolls nearly 1,000 students. Its campus includes the Bullocks Wilshire building, an art deco National Register ...

in Los Angeles.

References

External links

Texas Longhorns bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGee-Stafford, Imani 1994 births Living people African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Australia American expatriate basketball people in China American expatriate basketball people in Israel American expatriate basketball people in Turkey American women's basketball players Atlanta Dream players Basketball players from Los Angeles Beijing Great Wall players Centers (basketball) Chicago Sky draft picks Chicago Sky players Dallas Wings players Liaoning Flying Eagles players McDonald's High School All-Americans Perth Lynx players Texas Longhorns women's basketball players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American women