At Taina Mair's home in Dorchester, her mom, Mercy Pineda, is building quite a trophy collection.
The most prominently-displayed hardware is from last year's ACC championship, won as Mair and the Blue Devils went on to reach the program's first NCAA Elite Eight berth since 2013. Pineda will soon add another: Mair's ACC Tournament MVP award from this season's title-winning tournament.
"No one is allowed to touch it," Pineda said.
The trophies celebrate Mair blossoming from a reserved young child in Boston to the cornerstone point guard of the Kara Lawson era in Duke women's basketball. Mair, now ninth in ACC history with 649 career assists, is the best active college senior from Massachusetts and one of the top women's talents Boston has ever produced. She leads the Blue Devils into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed.
But to Pineda, who raised three kids as a single mom, sometimes working multiple jobs to support Mair's career, the trophies remind her of the sacrifices.
"She's done a lot throughout my whole life, so I know that she's a hard-working woman," Mair said. "She'll do whatever it takes for her children, and she's done just that for me."
Pineda primarily worked for the state as a case manager for folks needing food stamps — long hours of a stressful job. She often had no one else to watch Mair after school, so Mair would spend nearly every day in the gym at the Curtis Hall Community Center. Mair still speaks glowingly about Boston's community centers and how they kept her involved. But on days without an after-school program, Pineda would often scoop Mair up from the bus stop, take her to her office and hide her under her desk while she worked.
"I used to just sit there and draw and just bother her all day," Mair said.
Pineda moved to Boston from Honduras at age 12, and though she played a bit in high school and learned more about basketball from Mair's father and his side of the family, she knew nothing about the youth development ecosystem. When she enrolled a 7-year-old Mair in the local No Books No Ball youth clinic on the recommendation of a coworker, Pineda just wanted to keep her middle child active. She was unaware that the city program had a history of getting future basketball stars on track — and Mair was next.
Mair and her siblings, Trayana and Talik, would tie milk crates to the fences at a nearby elementary school and play. They tore apart their indoor mini-hoop, drawing sharp scoldings from Pineda. By fifth grade, Mair tried out for an upper-level team at Roxbury Prep, and the coach was floored when Mair was the first fifth-grader to make the roster. She spent a year of AAU with the local Boston Showstoppers before Mass Rivals coach Ushearnda Stroud spotted Mair at a tournament and quickly recruited her to the program.
Pineda learned the financial burden that budding hoops stardom would place on her family. She wanted to stoke her daughter's passion — what if Mair wanted Kevin Durant's new shoes, so she could rep her favorite player? Pineda picked up a second job working at a senior center to help make ends meet. Still, as Mair started crossing the country for AAU, Pineda simply couldn't afford to be there every time. Mair would often tag along with Stroud and the other Rivals coaches.
One time, for a big tournament in Georgia, Pineda went all-in to travel and watch her daughter. She came home to find their house's gas had been cut off.
"There were plenty of times that I didn't have the money to go to these tournaments," Pineda said. "But Taina was so committed to the game that I couldn't say no."
Mair saw her mom's effort and matched it on the court. She went 3-for-3 in winning NEPSAC championships (NEPSAC cancelled one season due to the pandemic), one at Holderness and two at Brooks under Stroud. She won Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior while averaging a triple-double in an undefeated season. Mair shined on the AAU circuit, picked up her first scholarship offer from George Washington and eventually committed to Boston College — partially, Pineda believes, so that she could come to games and "act a little crazy" cheering on her daughter.
"I just knew that it would be beneficial for me, and be the right thing for me, to go out there and play my ass off, because my mom's working hard, but she's still trying to watch on the live stream back at home," Mair said.
Mair dazzled during her first year, setting BC's freshman assists record, leading the ACC in total assists and landing on the conference All-Freshman team. She quickly attracted interest from national powers and decided to put her name in the transfer portal — something Pineda didn't understand.
"She was explaining to me what it was, and I'm like, 'Why do you want to leave? You're doing good at Boston College, just stay there,'" she said. "And then she was like, 'I want to leave the state.' And then I said (to myself), you know what? I can't be selfish. This is her life. This is her career. If that's what she wants to do, let her fly."
Mair chose Duke, a rising program under Lawson, the former Celtics assistant coach. She started every game of her sophomore year but was deeply homesick. Mair's biggest on-court challenge has never been skill — she's naturally quiet and reserved but playing a position in point guard where leaders have to use their voice. She had the freedom to do what she wanted and make mistakes at BC, but with Duke on track for an eventual NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2023-24, Mair's head spun as she processed Duke's new coverages and schemes.
"Now you're being thrust into a role where you have to lead this team from the point guard position, and T was going to be asked to lead this kind of young team — some returning pieces, but also, we needed her to be solid for us at the point guard position," said Duke assistant Pierre Miller. "I still think she was in a process of figuring that out, and also figuring out defensively, how does Duke do things? Because it was completely different from where she came from."
Miller started working more closely with Mair in their second year together. Lawson and Miller wanted Mair to grow in what they call forecasting: "talking through the action or what should be taking place before it takes place." They challenged Mair in film study and practice, and over time, Mair grew confident in forecasting and leading her team through plays and coverages.
Junior year, Mair again started every contest and helped Duke reach its first NCAA Elite Eight since 2012-13. This year, she's been asked to playmake more than ever, and it's led to Duke career highs in points (11.4), assists (5.5) and steals per game (2.4).
"She's been a consistent presence, and I think that's also been her work ethic throughout the summer and preseason, during the season, and after the season," Miller said. "T has one of the strongest work ethics of any player that I've coached, and I think that has lended itself to her growing in her game."
With soaring confidence and frequent games on national television, Mair has grown more comfortable as a public face of the Blue Devils. She gave a rare emotional interview after tallying 19 points and 12 rebounds in Duke's ACC championship triumph. She had a blast throwing out the first pitch for Duke's baseball season.
"I talk a lot more than I ever did in terms of on the court (and) off the court, to my teammates, my coaches, everything," Mair said. "I think for me, that kind of expands to more my personality. I was more to myself, and not really trying to branch out, but now that I'm super comfortable with being who I am and being super talkative, I think everybody kind of gets to see my personality a little more."
Pineda loves seeing that personality when she can attend Duke games in person or when she's screaming at the TV back in Dorchester. She feels like a superstar when neighbors come up and ask, "Are you T-Mair's mom?" Pineda has one March Madness run left to watch Mair hoop, and she still can't believe how far they've come.
"I just sit there sometimes and I'm like — that's my daughter," Pineda said. "Like, oh my freaking god. That's my kid right there!"
