Phoenix Suns center JaVale McGee recently said that NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal caused a downward spiral in his career by targeting him on “Shaqtin’ A Fool.”
“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 started to move on to other teams,” McGee said.
“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 of you 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.”
McGee explained that you can even make a video of Michael Jordan with his worst moments that could make him look like a bad player.
“You can make a lowlight of Jordan right now,” he said. “If you’ve never seen a highlight of him, you would think he was the worst player in the world. It was definitely a down spiral ever since that show aired of my career.”
McGee has worked past the “Shaqtin A Fool” days, as he’s now a three-time NBA champion.
During his 13-year career, McGee has averaged 7.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. He will get a chance to make an impact with the Suns during the 2021-22 season.
