STOCKTON, Calif. – Jordan Lee will have a lot of pride wearing a USA Basketball jersey against the World team during the Hoop Summit women’s game on Saturday. The prep guard also had a lot of pride wearing a Jason Kidd Select jersey when she won an AAU national title last year.
The Hoop Summit pits the top American high school seniors against the top international teenagers in boys and girls games.
“Just being able to rep that name and have people acknowledge that as we walk in the gym, we played with a certain type of aura that we were representing,” Lee told ESPN’s Andscape from her home April 7.
Kidd, the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks and a Basketball Hall of Famer, became intrigued about the possibility of starting a women’s AAU program after seeing the late Kobe Bryant and his connection with women’s basketball. Bryant and his daughter, Gigi Bryant, and seven others tragically died in a helicopter accident on Jan. 26, 2020. After Bryant’s death, Kidd started a high-level AAU program for girls that initially was rooted in Arizona before he settled on having it in his native San Francisco Bay Area. The program is coached and led by longtime basketball coach Armando Pazos.
“I thought Kobe was doing the right thing,” Kidd said prior to the Mavericks’ 104-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors on April 2. “And I know it was tied to Gigi. But I thought his brand, his light was bringing a lot more attention to the women’s game. With the accident. I just felt like, how can I help with my little flashlight? How can I bring some attention? How can I help in the Bay?
“And so, we went full throttle. We were going to connect the two — Arizona and the Bay — and it just turned out that the Bay was the group that I decided to work with. Armando at the time was with Golden City, his program. And it just worked out that he was the one that I wanted to do it with, and he’s run with it and he’s done an incredible job.”
Dallas Mavericks president Nico Harrison is a former Nike executive who worked closely with Kobe Bryant. Harrison recalls when Kidd first reached out to him after Bryant’s death about getting aid from Nike for his budding girls AAU program.
“We sponsored them from the beginning. [Kidd] said, ‘I want to give back to girls basketball. The men are taken care of. We need more people supporting women.’ I told him we will help with whatever you need. He just started building and he is doing a hell of a job,” Harrison said on April 2.
Lee Family
Lee actually was in the eighth grade just like Gigi Bryant when the latter died. Lee said they played against each other a couple of times in AAU tournaments. On the day of the helicopter accident that killed Kobe and Gigi Bryant, Lee and her AAU team were at the tournament at the Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, that the Bryants and other victims were trying to get to.
After learning the tragic news, the Lee family and many in attendance gathered in groups to pray.
“That really hit me,” Lee said. “And my dad, at that time, had been coaching me for the past five years, so I just couldn’t imagine knowing their relationship and how ours was as a player and coach. I couldn’t even put into words how sad it was.”
Said Roderick Lee, Jordan’s father: “I said, ‘Look in this gym.’ There were probably 3,000 kids of different ethnicities. And we were all hugging saying, ‘We just need to do better for Kobe.’ And I said to my team, ‘This is a guy who gave his life to better the game for you. This is a source of energy for you to drive you to that next level of basketball that you want attain.’ And man, we just hugged and cried.”
Lee Family
Jason Kidd Select has a 17-under team with girls from Northern California as well as Oregon, Hawaii and Arizona. The program takes care of all hotels, flights, Nike clothing and shoes, and other necessary costs. The girls even got seven pairs of Nikes at the end of the season.
Such aid is key for Lee, who stayed in a San Francisco-area hotel when there were days of practices instead of taking a potential two-hour commute from Stockton.
“They pay for flights, hotels, food, the end of the season party,” Roderick Lee said. “We’re going to Croatia in June. That just crazy. Nobody else does it.”
Kidd attended Jason Kidd Select practice in Oakland, California, on April 1. It’s not uncommon to see him pop up at practices and games, and Kidd makes a point to keep in contact with Pazos to get weekly updates. Kidd said it’s also important for girls in the program to meet mentors in careers outside of basketball through Jason Kidd Select.
“We try to provide them with everything we can and introduce them people outside of basketball because they’re all not going to be WNBA players,” Kidd said. “So, using the resources here to get them in front of doctors, judges, teachers, to give them people that they can talk about or a career path that they might think about.”
Said Pazos: “At first I was hesitant to take the job because I hear about so many athletes who put their names on programs and disappear. He was talked about getting all the girls scholarships and being fully invested into the program. I took a chance, left the Under Armour circuit and went with Jason, and it’s been amazing.”
With Lee leading the way, the Jason Kidd Select 17-and-under team won its first national title last year in the Premier Independent Circuit. Since 2020, all 26 eligible girls have landed Division I scholarships.
“At the start of [2023], we probably had three girls that hadn’t received any D-I scholarships at all,” Jordan Lee said. “And just the way that they played and shined with other girls that were at that same level and with attention of a lot of college coaches and throughout the entirety of the summer helped. The baseline sidelines were packed [with scouts)]. And from the exposure, the Jason Kidd name and what Armando has built and developed, that really led to the scholarships.”
Kidd is extremely proud of all the scholarship recipients in such a short time. He marveled at Lee being the first in the program to be named to play in the Hoop Summit, McDonald’s All-America Game and the Jordan Brand All-American Game. The next superstar on Jason Kidd Select’s horizon is San Jose Mitty High (Calif.) sophomore forward McKenna Woliczko, who is ranked sixth in the Class of 2026 by ESPN and already has a scholarship offer from South Carolina.
“For us to even have the McDonald’s All-American player in three years is incredible,” Kidd said. “To have almost 30 young ladies in Division I is incredible. I just think it’s surreal. It’s like a dream to be able to help. But as you can see, women’s sports are getting the proper light and hopefully continues to get the proper light that it deserves…
“[Lee] plays the game the right way. She works. She’s one that is not afraid of the moment.”
Lee Family
Along with starring for Jason Kidd Select, Lee averaged 25.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.9 steals for St. Mary’s High School (Stockton, Calif.) during the 2023-24 season. ESPN ranked her as the No. 9 prospect in the Class of 2024. She also has a 4.2 grade point average as has plans of studying to be a dermatologist at Texas.
Lee said Kidd gave her some words of wisdom that helped her pick Texas.
“Texas separated themselves with their culture and with my relationship with the coach and the things that they were able to provide off the court,” Lee said.
Lee says she definitely plans on keeping in touch with Kidd as she departs Jason Kidd Select to college. He said he has given her great advice about enjoying her accolades and “staying in the moment.” On the court, the NBA legend has also given her tips that has made an impact on her stellar game during a Jason Kidd Select team visit to Dallas last summer.
“We spent probably at least an hour and a half, not only watching film on some of the stuff that [Dallas Mavericks star] Luka [Doncic] does, but also breaking down my footwork and reads, shooting off a screen,” Lee said. “And this summer, that was instrumental for me because the biggest critique I was hearing was I need to improve my efficiency from 3-point land. And that was something that I had just been working on in the lab.
“And so, we broke down certain footwork off the screen, reading off the screen. Not only what my defender obviously is doing, tailing going under, but what the secondary and help the helper man is doing.”
While the boys Hoop Summit game was first played in 1995, the Hoop Summit’s girls game will take place for just the second time on Saturday. Lee watched on television when Southern Cal freshman phenom JuJu Watkins starred in the first girls Hoop Summit game last year.
“To be able to represent my country and have those letters across my chest, and especially because it’s only the second annual one, and to see how well those girls that played in it last year did in their freshman year in the NCAA, to be part of such an esteemed group, I’m thrilled. And it was a no-brainer to be a participant,” Lee said.
