"Shaqtin' A Fool was slowly chipping at my reputation": 3x NBA Champion JaVale McGee opens up about the impact the segment had on his career, and calling out Shaquille O'Neal
Carter Sullivan Phoenix Suns’ big JaVale McGee opens up about Shaqtin’ A Fool, and how it affected his career as a young player in the NBA
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There are times in every NBA players’ career, where they may mess up. Most players manage to avoid making mistakes that may be considered meme-worthy. However, there are some players who manage to goof up a lot. They usually end up on segments like ‘Shaqtin’ A Fool’.
While it is fun to watch such segments, getting featured one too many times on it can impact the player negatively. One such player, who has made a lot of Shaqtin’ A Fool appearance is JaVale McGee. During the early parts of his career, McGee had a lot of features on the Inside the NBA segment. Those did not sit right with him.
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JaVale McGee talks about how Shaqtin’ A Fool impacted his career
A 3x NBA Champion, and a recent Olympic Gold Medalist, JaVale McGee has had quite the career. The 33-year-old big was recently on Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe. There he discussed a few things, including his infamous Shaqtin’ A Fool features.
“The thing about that whole Shaqtin’ a Fool era of when I was on there is I didn’t realize what it was doing to my career until I got started to move on to other teams,”
“And I would talk to other coaches and middle of the year they’d be like ‘I’ve always seen that Shaqtin’ a Fool stuff and had a different mental review and I never knew like you’re a smart kid. You’re extremely vocal, you’re a great basketball player.’ It was slowly chipping away at my reputation. As a young 24-year-old athletic basketball player, young, excited, it was just slowly chipping away,” he added.
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McGee was a laughing stock in the league, despite his high basketball IQ. However, all that changed when Head Coach Steve Kerr took a chance with McGee and the Warriors. The rest, as they say, is history. McGee won two rings with the Warriors, continued to move on to the Lakers, and win a ring with them.
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