In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, host Draymond Green interviews former NBA center JaVale McGee. The conversation begins with McGee’s reputation as one of the league’s best lob‑throwers, a skill he credits to his chemistry with Andre Iguodala. Green then probes McGee’s decision to reject higher‑pay offers after his rookie season and return to the Golden State Warriors for a second year. McGee explains that the allure of a championship, the brotherhood among teammates, and the Warriors’ unique player‑first culture—highlighted by inclusive road‑trip dinners—were decisive factors. After winning two titles with Golden State, McGee discusses his move to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he became an early adopter of NBA‑focused social‑media monetization. Drawing on a long‑standing interest in film, he began filming daily workouts with celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson, building a personal content pipeline that showcased his dedication and attracted attention from GMs and coaches. McGee recounts how he expanded this effort with a dedicated content team, producing regular Instagram posts and YouTube videos. The interview culminates with McGee’s experience vlogging the 2020 NBA bubble, documenting every moment from his arrival to the championship, and reflecting on the lasting value of that archive. Throughout, both participants speak in a conversational, enthusiastic tone, emphasizing the importance of culture, personal branding, and storytelling in modern basketball.
Chapters
After your first year here, which I felt like at that time, DeAndre Jordan still very prominent in the league. Arguably at that time, not really arguably, the best lob threat in the league at that time. You solidify yourself as arguably the best lob threat in the league. To this day, I always tell people, best lob threat I ever played with. You leave your body, you just throw it up anywhere. And see, one thing that I don't think people understand is when I say best lob threat, it's actually you and Andre Iguodala. But when I say best lob threat, it was that I could throw it up there and if you can't dunk it, see most guys you throw a lob to and if they can't dunk it, they miss it, the ball go out of bounds. If you can't dunk it, you'll just grab the ball and come back down.
Mm-hmm.
And so you, You solidify yourself as arguably the best lob threat in the league. After year 1 with the Warriors, you had offers to go elsewhere for a little more money.
Yeah.
What made you say, nah, I'm not taking that. I'm gonna come back to the Warriors for a second year and take a minimum again.
Um, tasting that championship, man. Seeing what it took, game 1 to game 82, to every game in the playoffs of what it took, the brotherhood that I felt, the, the energy, the way the Warriors organization treats their players.
Mm-hmm.
I had been to 3, 4 teams and the Warriors by far still to this day treat their players the best out of anybody. Just, just one aspect of, of the way that the Warriors does uh, dinners on the road.
Yeah.
I still haven't seen it and I've been on 4 teams after that, I believe.
We appreciate you, Joe, Peter. Appreciate those dinners.
For sure. Just, just the, the aspect of that, being able to, to, to congregate with your teammates, not only your teammates, but your teammates' friends and family and not worrying about the bill. Just order whatever you want. We're all just gonna congregate and fellowship and, and really enjoy. And that, that was one aspect. And I'm like, "Oh, I gotta do this again. Like a million more ain't gonna do it for me. I need to do this again." And it worked out.
You finished with the Warriors, win two championships. You didn't leave, go to the Lakers. Second year you win a second championship. But while in LA, more things happen for you. Number one, I feel like you and that Lakers team, were the first guys to really learn how to like monetize social media from an NBA perspective. Like pregame, walking in, lifts, you name it. It's like all of a sudden you guys were producing content.
For sure. For sure.
What was driving that? Who was driving that? How did you guys kind of fall into that? Like what was the driving force in that?
I've always had a, had an eye for, I wanted to go to film school when I, when I came outta college. I mean, when I came outta high school, I wanted to go to USC, but I couldn't go to USC 'cause they wanted to redshirt me. I wanted to go there for, for film school, but I understood I'm here for basketball. So I was like, I gotta go somewhere where I can play right away. So I went to Nevada. So when I went to the Lakers, that's, that's Hollywood. You get what I'm saying? Like it's Hollywood. The opportunities you get playing, just playing for the Lakers. I don't care if you're on the bench. Just the opportunity to play for Lakers at a good season or a bad season are amazing. Um, and then I started this thing where, uh, I had, uh, who did I have? Had Gunnar Peterson as my weightlifting coach, um, the first year. Uh, the thing about Gunnar is Gunnar is a celebrity trainer.
Yes, he is.
So content is Gunnar's thing. Gunnar loves content, like he loves it. Uh, so I would I would film every lift that I would do and I was lifting every day. So I had content every day of 365 days of lifting on my page. So you would see a workout every day, every day, every day. And in the process of filming those things, I actually had to do those workouts.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm performing at an elite level also and I'm getting that work in, but I'm also getting the content aspect of it. And at the same time, other GMs GMs are seeing these workouts too. They're going to my Instagram seeing this. Other teams are seeing this, coaches are seeing this, and really seeing how locked in I really am and have been. I just never really put it out to the public. So, uh, when I got to LA, I made sure I got a, uh, I got a, uh, uh, what is it called, content team. Um, I had a content team and I made sure that I was putting out gems as much as possible.
I was watching it at the time and I'm like, man, like you, Bron, Kuz, like you name it, guys were literally producing content. And like, you see a lot of that now in the NBA, but I don't think people realize how much of a difference 3, 4 years can make. You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, you see a lot of it now, 3, 4 years later, but 4 years ago—
It wasn't like that, no.
And also kind of frowned upon.
You had to, that was what I was just about to say, you had to post stuff and be like, did we win this game? Like you had to really think about that. And it was even worse back, like my rookie year I used to post stuff on YouTube, but it was before YouTube was actually YouTube. I don't even think you could monetize YouTube back then. I just liked content and coaches, not coaches, but GMs and the upper, upper staff would tell me like, you need to focus on basketball, just other things. You don't need to be worrying about that content stuff and Twitter and all that stuff. Before my time, by far. And my, the second year I got the opportunity of going to the bubble.
Mm-hmm.
When we won the championship and I was the vlogger. I vlogged every moment in the bubble.
Yeah.
And people loved it. They loved every moment of it. Me and Mathis Thybulle were the two guys who were vlogging. But they got knocked out of the playoffs. I vlogged all the way to the championship.
Another flex, don't miss it.
Don't miss the flex. Something like, something like, nothing too crazy. I vlogged all the way to the championship. So us went into the in locker room celebration. I'm giving you content you will never see. You won't see that until the 30 for 30 comes out or—
In 30 years.
You see what I'm saying? So, and you can go back and watch that now. And that's, just think about that. 30 years from now, you'll be able to go back and watch that and understand what mindsets Bron was in, AD was in, I was in. You could see the different relationships. It's a crazy concept. And I figured that out early. The funny part is it was right before I was packing. I had packed all my stuff up. I called my content guy. I'm like, should I bring my, should I bring my vlog camera with me? He was like, might as well just film the process. I was like, "All right, cool, I'm gonna do that." And I filmed from me getting out the car, kissing my girl and my daughter goodbye, getting on the plane, and going into the bubble. And I filmed from that day until the championship. And it was epic. It was epic.
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