Alone on a summer afternoon at her family's new home in Long Beach, Gaynell Cotton unpacked boxes in silence, deciding which shelves would be for glasses and which for plates, the same ones she used to feed the college coaches, agents, reporters, photographers, NCAA officials and friends who used to beat a path to her door.

A few miles away, her youngest son, Schea, 25, was playing for the Clippers' summer league team at Long Beach State.

He missed the two shots he attempted that day, finishing with a final line that read: 19 minutes, no points, three rebounds, one assist, three fouls.

His dad, nicknamed Big James, and 27-year-old brother, Little James, who was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1997, mingled among the standing-room-only gathering. Wearing his signature white cowboy hat, Big James could not be missed ? the main reason Gaynell chose not to attend.

"I don't want to deal with them people in the stands, listening to all that crazy stuff they say, that my son's confused, that he's troubled," she said later in the day. "I don't want to hear that no more.