JaVale McGee getting last laugh after ‘Shaqtin’ A Fool’ damaged reputation. A fourth title could be next
JaVale McGee showed off a classic Mark Bryant trading card that a fan sent him.
“(He’s) very physical,” JaVale McGee said of Bryant, who played in the NBA for 10-seasons and now is an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns. “He said this league is very soft compared to the way they were playing back then. I agree. I truly agree.”
McGee has brought a level of physicality to the Suns, representing an important piece to Phoenix’s chase for its first title. And he knows how to win. McGee is a three-time NBA champion and an Olympic gold medalist, a far cry from his reputation for ineptitude that tainted his early years with the Washington Wizards and Denver Nuggets.
Drafted 18th overall in 2008 by the Wizards, McGee was a mainstay on “Shaqtin’ a Fool,” a weekly bloopers segment during TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” early in his career. He earned the nickname “Tragic Bronson” from analyst Shaquille O’Neal over boneheaded plays and bizarre mistakes.
Those plays included when he attempted a dunk from the free-throw line with his team trailing by 25 points. There was the time he ran back on defense when his team still had possession. He once swatted a shot into the fifth row and was called for goaltending. And who can forget the time the 7-foot-1 McGee was pushed off the block by 5-foot-9 Isaiah Thomas.
McGee said the blooper reel was “slowly chipping away” at his reputation.
“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,” McGee revealed on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” in September. “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.’”
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Source : yahoo
