Since retiring from the league, Shaquille O’Neal has been connected to the league in various ways. He is now an NBA analyst on NBA on TNT and he has his own show known as ‘Shaqtin’ a Fool.’
In the show, Shaq reacts to some of the funny moments that happen in the league and reacts to them. Although it is a fun show for fans, it might harm the reputations of players.
One of the biggest victims of that show is JaVale McGee. The big man had a few unfortunate moments on the court and O’Neal never exaggerated them a bit. As a result, McGee lost his value in the league in the eyes of many franchises.
The Suns center recently talked about this treatment on the ‘Club Shay Shay’ podcast with Shannon Sharpe.
“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. 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 further added.
“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.”
(starts at 2:48)
McGee is a solid player and has a lot of experience under the belt. He has won several NBA championships and brings great value to the team. In fact, he revealed that he enjoyed playing with the Los Angeles Lakers more than the GSW, despite winning rings with both the franchises.
For the upcoming season, McGee will be playing for the Phoenix Suns. Considering the team already has Deandre Ayton as the starting center, McGee will be relieving him from time to time by coming off the bench.
