Jase Richardson’s dad is an NBA dunk contest legend, but he was coached by his mom

LAS VEGAS — Jason Richardson was an All-American guard at Michigan State, helping the Spartans win the national championship in 2000. After being drafted No. 5 overall by the Golden State Warriors in 2001, Richardson had a 13-year NBA career that was highlighted by back-to-back dunk contest victories in the early 2000s.

With a resume like that, you would assume it was Richardson who played the major role in the development of his son, Jase, who was drafted 25th overall from Michigan State by the Orlando Magic in the 2025 NBA draft.

Nope.

It was Jase’s mom, instead.

“It was special to have somebody in your household other than your dad, who’s played the game and knows the game well,” Jase said of his mother, Jackie Paul-Richardson. “So just having her in my corner was super helpful. I felt like the majority of my basketball IQ comes from her because she’s just coached me for so long, and it’s just been me and her a lot.”

Paul-Richardson, 46, was a three-sport athlete at Boulder High School in Colorado, lettering in volleyball, basketball and track. She originally wanted to be a gymnast, but grew to be 5-foot-9, a giant in the world of gymnastics.

“So, that’s not a thing,” she said.

Paul-Richardson is a basketball junkie. Both her parents played basketball at junior colleges in Michigan. She knows the who’s who of the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL), and despises the modern game of basketball, which emphasizes 3-pointers. Growing up, Paul-Richardson didn’t want to be like Mike; she wanted to be Michael Jordan.

“Other girls are trying to date athletes. I wanted to be him,” she said of the legendary NBA player.

In high school, she scrimmaged in intramurals against some of the men’s players from nearby University of Colorado, including future Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups. When she enrolled at University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS), she had no intention of playing college sports, as she was a double major in applied mathematics and electrical engineering.

But one day, she was at an open gym run on campus when she was approached by a coach from the varsity women’s team, which needed an extra player. They offered Paul-Richardson a roster spot. She accepted and played one season at UCCS in 1999 before choosing to focus on academics.

Becoming a basketball coach was happenstance for Paul-Richardson. At 3 years old, Jase wanted to play basketball, so he was signed up for a recreational program. But Jase didn’t want to do drills by himself, so Paul-Richardson would join him on the court for practices.

After two years of being heavily involved, parents of the other 4- and 5-year-olds in the program asked Paul-Richardson to coach their kids.

“And that’s how it started,” she said. “I had no intention on coaching.”

Basketball wasn’t young Jase’s only love. He also grew up playing soccer for the Colorado Rapids’ developmental academy program. Unlike many of his peers, Jase didn’t receive the year-round specialized training in basketball. Paul-Richardson and Jason were three-sport athletes in high school and didn’t find it beneficial to have their boys focus on just one sport. Jase split his time between basketball and soccer.

“We thought it was important for them to try everything,” Paul-Richardson said.

In youth basketball, there can be often be an emphasis on winning and scoring: sit back in zone defense and only let your best players shoot on offense. That wasn’t Paul-Richardson’s philosophy. She wanted her players to play the right way — move the ball, make reads on offense, and give effort on defense. When her players made a turnover, they knew that their directive was to get the ball back.

“I wanted them to have the premise in their mind, ‘If I lose it, instead of sitting there feeling [sorry], I’m going to go get it back for you, or at least try,’ ” she said.

Added Jase: “We did ‘shell drill’ every day, up and down, full court, 90 feet everyday.”

Denver, where the family lived during Jason’s career, isn’t a hotbed for Division I basketball talent. For Paul-Richardson, teaching her players the intangibles would give them a better chance of succeeding.

“My thing was if they could at least have a leg up on understanding concepts, being able to apply instruction, understand situations, be able to make situational reads, be able to defend, know positions to be in … it would give them a leg up,” she said.

In the offseason, Jason Richardson would sometimes pop in on practices, taking the players through NBA-level shooting and one-on-one drills. He trained Jase during the lead-up to the draft.

Jase was usually the best scorer and most composed player on his mother’s teams. Paul-Richardson emphasized to him that due to his height (he’s now 6-foot), Jase would have to compensate against taller players. She admits she was strict and demanding with him and his teammates, but it was to prepare him for the next levels of basketball, she said.

In two NBA summer league games this month, Richardson averaged 16.5 points, 1.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 23.4 minutes per game, including 50% from 3-point range. In his first summer league game on July 10 against the Sacramento Kings, Jase scored 14 points, knocked down two 3-pointers, drew two offensive fouls, put his body on the line on multiple plays, and had no problem switching onto bigger opponents, though he did finish with four fouls.

“And so I used to tell him all the time, you just have to be better,” Paul-Richardson said. “You have to take care of the ball, you have to be efficient, all these things. Because for him, even his performance still won’t supersede some people’s view of smaller guards.”

As a freshman at Michigan State, Jase averaged 12 points on 49% shooting, including more than 41% on 3-pointers. He also grabbed three rebounds and averaged two assists per game. Jase was named to the Big Ten’s all-freshman team and was third-team all-conference while helping lead Michigan State to its first NCAA Elite Eight appearance since 2019.

According to research by YouTube basketball analyst Keandre “Hoop Intellect” Ashley, Jase shot 45% on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers last season and over 68% at the rim at Michigan State. He committed just 30 turnovers through 36 games for the Spartans.

“Which was a lot,” she said, not giving her son an inch.

It’s a bit of tough love, but it serves a purpose for Paul-Richardson.

For example, during the Round of 32 in last season’s tournament, Jase struggled against New Mexico, finishing 1 for 10 (0 for 5 on 3-pointers) for six points. But in the game’s final two minutes, he had a steal, was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three free throws, and had an offensive rebound and putback that contributed to a 71-63 victory and trip to the Sweet 16.

After the game, Jase embraced his mom and told her he played “f—— awful.”

Paul-Richardson agreed, but added, “Nobody wants to see what you look like or how you respond when everything’s going well. I said every scout in this building tonight knows exactly what you’re made of when the ball stops going in. … You defended, you rebounded. You had the putback that put us up, and the and one.”

Under every post Jase makes on social media, Paul-Richardson writes in the comments section, “Keep fighting, kid.”

And that’s what this is all about. It’s easy for a mom to be proud of one of her sons being an NBA draft pick and the other, Jaxon, a top-10 college prospect for the class of 2026. But molding good people is what Paul-Richardson wanted out of this entire process. She stopped coaching in 2021 when Jase graduated from the under-16 level and has only stayed on the proverbial sideline for some of Jase’s former teammates and Jaxon.

As Paul-Richardson reflects on her coaching career, she said she’s satisfied with how Jase and Jaxon turned out.

“I didn’t care about the sports because I knew, athletically, they’d be fine and they’d figure that part out. So, for us, it was just the mental toughness, coping skills, being a good teammate, just being a good human,” she said.

“I think that’s the part for me that makes me proud.”