JaVale McGee explains why he confronted Shaq over years of "Shaqtin' a Fool" ridicule, which felt like a personal attack. After winning back-to-back titles with Golden State, McGee landed with the Lakers as a starter and posted his best season, averaging 12 points and 8 rebounds in 20 minutes per game.
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during that time, you're on Shaq Than a Fool every week, every chance they get.
Every week.
You're on Shaq Than a Fool. And for a while, I felt like before you got here, you would say something back and forth with Shaq. Then once you got here, A, you're playing great basketball. I mean, incredible basketball. And the minutes that you're playing, whatever minutes that is, whether it was 21 minutes one night, whether it was 9 minutes the next night, it was 24 minutes, whatever minutes you played, you played great basketball. Then something happened between you and Shaq. And like, what happened to where all of a sudden now you're not on Shaqton Da Fool? I mean, it felt like 3 times a week.
Right. It was like a last straw. I seen an episode, I'm watching an episode, you know, people tag you, everything. I'm like, all right, what I do now? So I watched the episode, I think I went coast to coast and I missed the layup. I was just like, did they just put me on Shaq and Draymond Green for missing a layup? Not airball on layup, not nothing crazy, just went coast to coast. I might have did a move and I just missed the layup. I'm just like, all right, bro, this is it, bro. I'm not going for this shit no more, bro. Like, come on, bro. You already have your, first of all, you're perennial Hall of Famer, you know what I'm saying? Like, your reach is global. Like, kids, kids in villages in China know who Shaq is. So the fact that you keep putting this narrative out there about me, first of all, my first question is why? Do I know somebody you know that you feel a certain type of way about something, or is there a reason that this is happening? Like, and then the second, the second part is why'd you do this to another Black man? Mhm. That's what really like, 'cause I don't see you, the white athletes in the league, I don't see you hitting them every time. So I believe I had a moment where they, when I was on Denver and they interviewed me about it and I was just like, I don't like Shaq and the Coon. That's just not my thing. I don't like that.
Mm-hmm.
And they thought it was funny, aha, and it was skipped over. But then they look at it now and they're like, oh shit, okay, he was on to something. He understands what's really going on. So at that point, I just didn't understand why I need to be the butt of his jokes. What did I do to him to where I need to be the butt of his jokes? And I went on Twitter, I went on Twitter 'cause I knew it would get the same reaction as he's getting on mine. And I said what I needed to say. And I told him to get off my, I believe I put peanut emojis on the, what you call it, so I wouldn't get fined.
Fine.
Thinking, thinking, of course, I'm like, I don't wanna lose my money now. So I said, get off my peanut emojis. And then we had a nice back and forth. And yeah, that's what that was.
No, and I think, and by the way, for those of you who's gonna watch this show, I used the word coon last year and it was a big deal. I respected that and I spoke on it. What you have to understand is when JaVale called, when he said, I don't watch Shaq in the Corner or something, whatever the statement was. A, this is 2013, 2014. So what you have to understand is the time period that that was said, it wouldn't be like if you said it today, like the climate on those things are totally different. And so it wasn't looked at as like a racially sensitive thing. So I want everybody, all our listeners, subscribers to understand that because under no circumstance, is the Draymond Green show trying to get anyone fined or in trouble or having to apologize. So we're gonna address that right now. But in saying that, you came out and you said, and now I'm fast forwarding back to when you were with the Golden State Warriors. You said, yo, this is affecting my career. Like this is, people are thinking about me just by these plays, I go somewhere, it's really affecting my career. And I felt like when you said that, to Shaq's credit, he said, I am not gonna put Draymond Green on Shaq Than a Fool anymore. And to his credit, to my knowledge, he hasn't. Do you feel like things changed for you once that started happening in a positive light?
By far, by far. I mean, also winning 2 championships back to back didn't hurt at all.
Absolutely.
But after that, it was taking up, okay, JaVale's a pro, he's serious about the game, he's locked in, he was a major part of a championship run, 2 of them back to back. And then after that, I got the starting spot with the Lakers after I left you guys. And in my mind I'm like, starting center, how do you go from being waived 3 years ago from a team to being a starting center on the Lakers? And I actually had my best year that year with LeBron. I think I averaged 12 and 8, which isn't crazy numbers, but for me that was the highest numbers I had had. And I was 30.
It's also you were averaging 19 minutes a game, 20 minutes a game.
That too.
So the per 36, which a lot of people judge off of, per 36, those averages are probably like 20 and 14 or something.
Yeah, per 36, they were all-star numbers.
Absolutely.
For sure. So after that year, I re-signed with the Lakers and I'm also the starting center. AD comes. To the team. And we win the NBA championship.
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