NBA fans were used to seeing JaVale McGee on Shaqtin’ A Fool for the funny plays that caught the eye of Shaquille O’Neal. While it was amusing for the viewers of the show to see the ‘Shaqtin’ A Fool MVP’ be laughed at, turns out it had a negative impact on the center’s career.
The three-time NBA champion who won titles with the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers revealed that the image of him which was created by popular show affected how the teams viewed him as a player.
It was more impactful while McGee was still a young players who was building his reputation in the league. The teams that did not know him personally had an impression of him that was created byShaqtin’ A Fool, he revealed in an interview with Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay.
Via Abhishek Singh of Essentially Sports:
“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 got started to move on to other teams,” JaVale 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 review 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.’”
