JaVale McGee On Being The Face Of Shaqtin' A Fool: 'You Can Be A Hero Or The Clown But Both Get Paid'

JaVale McGee was a guest on Dwight Howard's podcast recently. During the show, the hosts brought up media misconceptions, and McGee spoke about how Shaquille O'Neal's 'Shaqtin A Fool' segments convinced fans and teams that he wasn't a good player, which was very damaging to his reputation.

“I didn’t understand how strong the media was, and I didn’t understand that people took it serious. This game, I did one bad play but I had 15 and 6 blocks. But y’all didn’t show none of that. People were like ‘He’s horrible. Why’s he even in the league?’. I was like ‘Oh sh*t, people think I’m really bad. They don’t think I’m a good player'."

"Kids coming up to me - ‘Ahh, Shaqtin A Fool!’. Then the NBA started getting behind it too. To where they started making a whole piece about it. One episode, it was just top five of me."

"You got the WWE, right? You got the villain and you got the good guy. But both are getting paid. So I’m like - Okay, I can be that clown you want me to be, but you’re going to have to pay me clown money, then. You’re not about to pay me mediocre money and disrespect me and push my career down the hill…”

McGee was the butt of the joke constantly on Shaquille O'Neal's 'Shaqtin A Fool' segments on Inside The NBA. The segment would feature mistakes, flubs, and funny moments from players during games. What was initially intended as a light-hearted rib at players became very personal and targeted toward McGee.

McGee, despite being a solid big man in the NBA, was consistently being slammed by Shaquille O'Neal in these segments, with Shaq once even dedicating an entire segment solely towards McGee's mistakes and bad moments. You can watch a compilation of their exchanges below.