This is the fourth story of a four-part series on this year's ODU Sports Hall of Fame class.
By Harry Minium
Gerald Lee rarely saw people of color when he grew up in a sparsely populated part of Finland. The country is one of the most homogeneous in the world, with nearly 98 percent of its population being ethnic Finns or Swedes.
Lee was born into a multiracial family -- his father, Gerald Sr., is a former American basketball star and an African-American who married a Finnish woman. At times when he walked down the street, Lee drew stares.
So when he enrolled at Old Dominion University in 2006, he was pleasantly surprised at the rainbow of faces he saw.
ODU’s student body includes people from nearly 100 counties and all 50 states. He saw black, white, Asian and Hispanic faces wherever he went.
“I didn’t know there so were many races, so many skin colors,” he said.
“I loved it. It was really amazing.”
Not as amazing, of course, as Lee’s ODU basketball career.
Gerald Lee hoists the 2010 CAA championship trophy at the Richmond Coliseum.
Lee scored 1,624 career points, had 670 rebounds and led ODU to one of its most memorable seasons in 2009-2010 as a senior.
ODU was 27-9 and defeated VCU in overtime of the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament in Richmond before dispatching William & Mary in the championship game. I was there and watched many hundreds of ODU fans, some carrying giant posters adorned with Lee’s face, celebrate at mid court.
Lee was named MVP of the tournament.
A week later, Lee helped ODU stun Notre Dame, 51-50, in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in New Orleans, which ranks among the top victories in Monarch history.
Lee will receive what he calls the greatest honor of his career tonight when he is inducted into the Old Dominion Sports Hall of Fame in downtown Norfolk.
“I can’t even describe it in words how much this means to me,” he said. “I never expected to be in ODU’s hall of fame.”
Several of his former teammates and college friends will be there, including Darius James, who played with Lee for three seasons at ODU and is the athletic development officer for the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation.
James said Lee “was the best player I ever played with.”
And James played with ODU stars such as Kent Bazemore, now in the NBA; and Frank Hassell, who has had a long career playing in Europe.
“He was 6-foot-10 and could handle the ball, shoot with his right hand or left hand and could shoot it from outside,” James said. “His post game was phenomenal. We used call him Mr. Fundamental. He was like Tim Duncan.
Lee held Notre Dame's Luke Harangody, the Big East Player of the Year, to just four points in ODU's upset victory in 2010.
“He was just a beast. He is such a nice person that sometimes on the court you’d have to remind him of how good he was. But once he got going, he was unstoppable. He outplayed guys like Larry Sanders at VCU who went on to the NBA. He outplayed a lot of guys who are in the NBA.”
Blaine Taylor, who coached Lee at ODU, called him "a gentle giant."
"He was such a nice kid," Taylor said. "He was so polite. But when the got on the court, he would light it up."
Lee was asked to play in the NBA summer league in Las Vegas, but instead went back to Europe because he had lucrative offers there. Most European pro leagues have limits on the number of imported players a team can carry. Because he was a European and wasn’t counted as an import, he was able to claim top dollar.
“Had Gerald pursued it, he would have played in the NBA today,” James said.
Lee had a nine-year career in European leagues that took him to Romania, Italy, France, Montenegro and Helsinki, Finland’s largest city.
“It was really tough at times to adapt to different cultures,” he said. “For example, in Montenegro, they have an army-like mentality. There was no smiling. You played basketball with a straight face and with no mistakes.”
The irony here is that when Lee arrived in Norfolk in 2006, he also had a straight face. Finnish culture is more laid back than American culture and Lee was shy and reserved at first.
“It took him a while to open up,” said Blaine Taylor, who was ODU’s coach at the time. “But he did and had a great sense of humor.
“One of the things I remember most about Gerald was his toothy grin. He had the best smile. And when he made a good joke, no one laughed louder than him.”
Lee loved actor Will Farrell and often repeated a line from “The Wedding Crashers” in which Farrell yells “Meatloaf Mom.”
“He said it all the time,” James said. “In our apartment, at practice, on the road. So we started calling him meatloaf.
When Gerald Lee met legendary sportscaster Dick Enberg in 2010, they spoke Finnish to each other.
“When he got rolling in a game and would hit a couple of buckets in a row, we’d scream, ‘meatloaf’ at him. After a while, coach Taylor started calling him meatloaf.”
Taylor didn’t joke much on the court. He was a taskmaster who blistered his players with expletives when they weren’t playing very hard or very well.
“We really pushed Gerald hard,” Taylor said. “Occasionally, we challenged him and at times there was some cussing. But he blossomed into something special.
“He was so good at handling the ball that a few times, we had him play point guard. Against Notre Dame, he was bringing the ball up the court. Imagine that, a 6-foot-10 a kid playing the point.”
Lee says he appreciates all Taylor did for him, but he and Frank Hassell gave their coach a little payback a few years ago.
“I was in bed one night around 3:30 in the morning when my phone rings,” Taylor said. “And all I hear are two guys saying the things to me that I say to them as players.”
It was Lee and Hassell calling from France.
“I laughed about that for days,” Taylor said.
James said he and Lee spent time trying to mimic the way each other spoke – Lee still has a distinctive Finnish accent. James was never able to nail down how to pronounce Uusikaupunki, Lee’s hometown, nor was Lee able to speak without an accent.
"But we had fun trying," James said.
Lee being honored for scoring 1,000 career points by Jim Jarrett, Blaine Taylor and President John R. Broderick.
Taylor said one of his best memories of Lee came the day before ODU met Notre Dame in New Orleans. As Taylor and Lee were walking to the ODU locker room, they bumped into sportscasters Jay Bilas and Dick Enberg. Taylor then introduced them to Lee.
“Before we knew it, Dick Enberg and Gerald were speaking to each other in Finnish,” Taylor said. “Bilas and I are looking at each other like what the heck is going on.
“It turns out that Dick’s mother was from Finland. I think that conversation helped Gerald play with more confidence. Gerald lit up like a Christmas tree.”
ODU stuns Notre Dame in 2010 NCAA tournament
Taylor stood in for Alex Loughton, the former ODU star from Australia, when he was inducted into the ODU Hall of Fame a few years ago. But he can’t be there tonight. He’s an assistant coach at UC Irvine and the Anteaters have a game on Saturday.
“I wish I could be there,” Taylor said. “No one deserves this honor more than he does.”
Lee says he will miss Taylor but will enjoy renewing old friendships.
“I grew so much as a basketball player there, but more as a human being,” he said. “I miss the people there. I really miss the fans. We had such good fans there.
“I can’t wait to get back and see everyone.”
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Lee will be inducted into the Old Dominion Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, Oct. 25 at the Hilton Main in downtown Norfolk. For more information on the Hall of Fame Dinner, please CLICK Here or call 757-683-3097.