As a Frisco fifth grader, P.J. Washington Jr. told his parents that he had big basketball aspirations. Rather than temper his hopes, they encouraged him to commit them to paper, as goals.
Young P.J. pondered, then wrote: Be a McDonald’s All-American. Sign with Kentucky. Play for USA Basketball. Become an NBA lottery pick.
He quickly learned that true commitment required far more sweat than words, but he attained all of the above before turning 21. One fifth-grade goal, though, lingered.
“I want to play for the Dallas Mavericks.”
Imagine, then, the Washington family’s elation when the Mavericks acquired 6-7 power forward P.J. on Feb. 6. Imagine the pride that welled within parents Paul Sr. and Sherry as P.J. became a catalyst in Dallas’ 16-2 late-season charge.
Imagine the family’s emotions Sunday when 25-year-old P.J. takes Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena court for his first NBA playoff game, against the Clippers, for his hometown team and the coach he watched lead Dallas to the 2011 championship as a point guard.
“It means everything,” Washington said. “A lot of my family and friends are going to be there. It’s a dream come true and I can’t wait to get going.”
It’s wondrous enough that he now plays home games in the arena he used to come as a kid, arriving in North Texas as a first-grader and remaining through 10th grade, when he transferred to Findlay Prep in Las Vegas, coached by his father.
This karma, though, is rooted more deeply than happy coincidence. Pro athletes who play for their hometown team often experience added distraction and pressure, but in P.J.’s case there are extra layers of familiarity — and people to hold him accountable on the court, tough-love he openly embraces.
The Washington family has known Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison and assistant coach God Shammgod since P.J. was in Frisco’s Stafford Middle School. Tim Martin, P.J.’s personal trainer since 8th grade, is Dallas-based.
Coach Jason Kidd often has remarked that having family and friends in North Texas has eased P.J.’s Mavericks transition, but in reality his only relatives here are wife Alisah and their three sons.
Then there’s the Washingtons’ longstanding ties with North Texas’ AAU basketball community, forged after Paul and Sherry founded the Frisco-based Texas Celtics, which naturally included P.J. and younger brother Spencer.
“That’s why we always say P.J. has family here,” Sherry said. “They may not be blood, but they’re family.”
Texas Celtics
Paul Jamaine Washington Sr. lives in Las Vegas, Sherry in Charlotte. They’re divorced, but had Paul not mentioned that fact as they sat down with The News before a recent game in American Airlines Center, no one would have guessed it from their teasing banter.
They met in 1994 at Middle Tennessee State, where Paul was a 6-5 forward and Sherry Tucker was a 5-11 guard.
“I was more physicality, defense, dunking, IQ; she was one of those players who shot a lot,” Paul said.
“Oh, my God,” Sherry said with a laugh. “Not true!”
Paul, a junior college transfer, averaged 7.8 points and 4.4 rebounds in two seasons for the Blue Raiders. Sherry played 102 career games and as a senior was named to the All-Ohio Valley Conference team after averaging 20.8 points and 8 rebounds.
P.J. was born in 1998 in Louisville, Ky. Spencer came a year later and Alexandria was born in 2001. The family moved to St. Louis, then Chicago, before settling in Frisco — Paul as general manager of a CarMax dealership; Sherry as a teacher at Scoggins Middle School.
Second-grader P.J. had been playing competitively since preschool, towering above other kids his age. Despite their college basketball backgrounds, Paul and Sherry initially were content to allow others to coach their kids.
“I’m sitting in the gym, frustrated with what I saw them doing in practice,” Sherry said, motioning toward Paul. “He’s at work, so I’m texting him, ‘You won’t believe what they’re doing.’ He probably got tired of hearing that from me.”
Thus the Texas Celtics were born. When Paul became a coach at Stafford Middle School, it meant both parents were Frisco ISD employees and had access to gyms.
From their grassroots early years, the Celtics sprouted to a powerhouse, traveling the country in a 52-passenger Greyhound bus purchased by team sponsor and Plano insurance company owner Charles Glendenning, winning multiple national titles.
The Celtics were rooted in fundamentals and avant-garde philosophy: No specialized teaching.
Guards and posts alike learned to block out, dribble, rebound, pass, post up, face up and shoot from the perimeter.
“I was a big guy when I was young and everybody put me in the post,” Paul Sr. said. “I didn’t know how to shoot until I got to junior college. So with the Celtics we did the same drills for everybody. You had no natural position. Everybody just played.”
That well-roundedness served P.J. well, even as recruiters and scouting services struggled to pinpoint whether he was a small forward, power forward or a small center.
Meanwhile, being a Texas Celtic carried the added benefit of occasional tickets to Mavericks games. Glendenning had season tickets near the American Airlines Center’s endzone domain of the Mavericks ManiAACs.
Sherry smiles in memory of fourth-grader P.J.’s first Mavericks game, when he seemed more captivated by the ManiAACs than the game.
The storybook version would be that P.J. revered Dirk Nowitzki and was a diehard MFFL. But as Paul Sr. notes, kids of P.J.’s generation seldom had favorite teams, but, rather, players. Though P.J. liked meeting J.J. Barea, Corey Brewer and other Mavericks, he idolized the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony.
P.J. does, however, recall the 2010-11 Mavericks’ title run and the savviness of 38-year-old Kidd.
“And then being able to be coached by him is just a dream come true,” he said. “Being able to dissect all the stuff and pick his brain... I just think it’s a luxury having him here.”
‘You’ve got to earn it’
When the Mavericks acquired him from Charlotte, it also brought P.J. to the home base of 37-year-old Tim Martin, best known these days as the personal trainer of Spurs sensation Victor Wembanyama.
Martin also has trained Trae Young, Tyrese Maxey, Rudy Gobert, Myles Turner and Nic Claxton, among others, but his first notable protégé was Washington.
Martin met Paul Sr. and Sherry at a coaching conference at SMU. The parents were concerned, Paul says, that P.J. “got to the point where it felt like he wasn’t listening; he needed someone in his ear instead of us.
“We’re parents first,” Paul Sr. added. “We didn’t want to be an overbearing basketball dad or mom where he just didn’t want to be around us.”
By then eighth-grader P.J. had for several years been playing on AAU teams with kids two years older than him, with Paul Sr. as head coach. On occasion, in the middle of games, disappointed coach would tell perplexed son to take off his sneakers and go talk to his mother.
“Funny story,” Paul Sr. said. “He’s in sixth grade, playing with the eighth-grade team. We’re out in Mansfield and he’s sitting on the bench, looking like he’s comfortable.
“I said, ‘What are you doing? You don’t want to be out there?’ “He’s like, ‘Yeah, but you won’t put me out there.’ I said, ‘I’m not giving you nothing. You’ve got to earn it.’ "
Enter Martin, whom Paul Sr. and Sherry call “the whisperer,” for his ability to connect with young athletes.
“He was raw in a lot of ways,” Martin said. “Big kid, long arms, big old hands, but definitely needed some polishing up.”
P.J. was 13, stood 6-5, and was about to enter “Uncle” Deion Sanders’ Prime Prep Academy. Martin brought boxing gloves to his first session with P.J. in Frisco.
“I just chipped away at him, pounding his arms and stomach while he did dribbling drills,” Martin said. “I just wanted to set the tone early. I think from that moment, we developed a relationship.
“He’s like a big-little brother.”
Gradually toughened and polished P.J. led Prime Prep to a state title as a 9th grader. He played one season at Frisco Lone Star under assistant coach Paul Sr., then transferred to Findlay Prep in an effort to increase his national visibility.
Recruiting services certainly noticed, ranking him 12th nationally in the Class of 2017, but what was he, exactly? To the legendary Shammgod, the first time he saw Washington play, attempting to define his position was pointless and unnecessary.
Shammgod and longtime NBA player and coach Sam Mitchell led the Adidas Nations camp for college prospects and Washington, 16, stood out in every respect.
“He could do everything well,” Shammgod said. “He dribbled better than you thought. He jumped higher than you thought. He was faster and shot better than you thought.
“Kind of like now.”
Over time, Shammgod noticed something else.
“He comes from a family that is realistic about basketball. Some parents want their kid to be the star all the time. P.J.’s father is not like that. P.J.’s father is a father.”
Paul Sr. says he tried to hire Shammgod at Findlay Prep. Shammgod instead joined Rick Carlisle’s Mavericks staff in 2019, the same year in which P.J., after two seasons at Kentucky, was picked 12th overall by Charlotte in the draft.
Shammgod vividly recalls multiple conversations with Carlisle during the next few seasons, initially as Washington averaged 12 points and five rebounds and was named NBA All-Rookie second team.
“Man, it would be so cool if we got P.J. He would be perfect for us.”
In his first NBA game, Washington sank seven 3-pointers and scored 27 points against Chicago. Facing the Mavericks in AAC in early January was of course a thrill, but perhaps the most special moment of that season occurred on Jan. 20, 2020.
It was P.J.’s first time not only facing, but meeting his idol, Anthony, who two months earlier had returned to the NBA at age 35, signing with Portland.
Paul Sr. flew to Portland for the occasion. That night he sat next to a Nike executive who had known the Washingtons since P.J. was a seventh-grader.
Nico Harrison.
Paul Sr. and Harrison watched as P.J. and Anthony lined up next to one another and spoke before a free throw. Moments later Anthony drained a 3-pointer over P.J. and gave his trademark three-fingers-to-the headband sign. Next possession, P.J. sank a 3 over Anthony and put three fingers to his temple.
“For a dad, it was amazing,” Paul said.
Also amazing: Barely a year later Harrison became Dallas’ general manager and two months ago he traded for P.J., a player with whom he’s intrinsically family.
“Nico,” marvels Kidd, “has the book on all of these guys.”
What exactly was Harrison’s book on Washington?
“P.J. in his high school years was one of the top kids in America,” Harrison said. “P.J. was kind of the cheat code because he was big; he could handle the ball; he could shoot.
“I think he was a little bit of an enigma. Everybody wants nice, neat packages. He was just a hooper, big and strong and powerful, always a mismatch.”
In other words, a chameleon, adaptable, versatile, a prototype in today’s increasingly position-less NBA.
“He’s gone,” Harrison said, “from something where people are kind of perplexed and trying to figure him out to where people are like, ‘Oh, no, this is awesome. This is an asset. This is a benefit.’ "
Finding his identity
P.J. wears No. 25 because that was his father’s jersey number, but he says his game is equal parts Mom and Dad.
“My dad was more like a bruiser,” he said. “My mom definitely has all the skills, all the dribbling, shooting; all that stuff I got from her.”
During his five NBA seasons he has flashed moments of stardom, including a pair of 43-point games in Charlotte and, as a Maverick, his April 5 performance against Golden State: 32 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, 2 blocks.
With a team built around Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, defense is what the Mavericks most need from Washington, but they certainly wouldn’t mind if his 11-game run of 40% 3-point shooting continues into the playoffs.
What most excites the organization, Harrison says, are Washington’s 7-2 wingspan, tireless work ethic and potential as he nears his career prime with two seasons on his contract beyond this one.
“He wants to win, that’s the biggest thing about him,” Paul Sr. said, playfully adding: “There’s one thing you’ll never see him do; that’s take a charge. He’ll block a shot, he’ll rebound, but he ain’t taking no charge.”
Paul Sr. for a moment turned emotional, thinking about P.J.’s two-decade journey. And that list.
“It all started from him telling us what he wanted to be, in his dreams.”
Who is P.J. Washington Jr.? What is he? He’s a hooper who has checked off all of those goals on that list, yet carries an aura that he’s only begun to tap his potential, playing for his hometown team, on the cusp of his first playoff series.
“I know who I am,” he said. “I’ve been putting in the work from day one.”
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