Sometimes Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t realize how much weight his words hold before criticizing players. O’Neal’s constant attacks on JaVale McGee took a toll on the latter to such an extent that the center lost confidence. During an episode of Dwight Howard’s podcast, McGee revealed how regular appearances on Shaq’s “Shaqtin-A-Fool” bothered him.
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The three-time NBA champ claimed that the media was extremely harsh on him and painted an inaccurate narrative about him – showing bloopers but not his highlights.
It reached a point where fans began to believe that the 7-foot center wasn’t a good player and claimed that the latter shouldn’t even be in the league.
“It affected me more of I didn’t understand how strong the media was and I didn’t understand that people actually took it seriously. That was when it messed me up. I was like oh y’all really think like out of this game, I did one bad play, but I had 15 and six blocks. But y’all didn’t show none of that.”
Additionally, McGee’s morale further took a hit when kids came up to him and teased him.
“People was like ‘oh yeah he’s horrible, why is he even in the league’. I was just like ‘oh sh*t people really think this I’m really bad, they don’t really think I’m a good player’. Kids coming up to me ‘ah Shaqtin-A-Fool’.”
For the longest time, McGee sustained the criticism. However, McGee soon broke his silence when he made it to an episode of Shaqtin-A-Fool despite there being a legitimate blooper. This encouraged him to stop paying attention to the media, especially this segment of NBA on TNT.
“Then what was like the really last straw for me is I think I might have blocked the shot went coast to coast and somebody like undercut me and I missed the layup. I was just like ‘that was a blooper? Was that a blooper? I don’t think that’s blooper worthy’.”
There are players like Dillon Brooks and Trae Young who have become accustomed to having a “villain” role in the league. Similarly, the 36-year-old concluded by claiming that he had no problem taking on the role of a “clown”. However, he demanded to get paid “clown” money instead of the mediocre amount he got accompanied by constant disrespect.
“I can be that clown you want me to be but you got to have to pay me clown money then… I can play that role but you not about to pay me mediocre money and disrespect me and push my career down the hill,” JaVale McGee concluded.
For multiple seasons during the beginning of the career, McGee was humiliated. Each mistake of his was amplified on national TV. Hence, his frustrations are completely justified.
Despite the unnecessary slander that he received, especially from an individual as popular as O’Neal, McGee has been in the league for 16 long years. He’s also won three titles, playing a crucial role coming off the bench during those seasons. Having a resume that many players in the league would long for, the Michigan-born player clearly did a great job in ignoring all the noise.
