The Truth Behind His NBA Career... | Javale McGee | DSH #1938
4/28/20269 min
The NBA isn’t what it used to be. It’s not just about talent anymore. It’s not even about instinct. It’s about numbers. On this episode, JaVale McGee breaks down how analytics changed the game—why teams would rather take difficult 3-point shots than easy layups, and how players are forced into roles like employees in a system. Basketball used to be feel. Now it’s math. From NBA championships to Olympic gold, JaVale shares what it’s really like inside the league—how decisions are made, why physicality has dropped, and what players actually think about the modern game...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJaVale McGee· Guest0:00
You gotta think about basketball as your job, um, when you a pro, so it's like you're in HR, you're not over here doing the CEO job. You worry about people complaining about people talking shit to them. And then analytics is a whole different animal. Analytics, they'll tell you they'd rather have threes than layups. Easy layups. We'd rather have hard threes than easy layups. They're like, I guess they're thinking, okay, if you shoot two threes and you make two, you get six points. If you shoot two layups and you make two, you only get four points. They're just like, "Okay, well, we'd rather take the odds of that." Yeah, so it's a crazy concept now. It definitely shifted from back in the day.
Speaker 10:28
All right, guys, Javale McGee here. What happened, man?
JaVale McGee· Guest0:38
Oh, man. Ray J got my ass, man.
Speaker 10:41
Damn.
JaVale McGee· Guest0:42
I had ace king, he had ace two. Then, uh, his two came out. Obviously, I didn't know what he had yet.
Speaker 10:49
Oh.
JaVale McGee· Guest0:50
I got ace king and he went all in. But two hands before that, he went all in, all in. I'm like, "No way."
Speaker 10:56
Yeah.
JaVale McGee· Guest0:57
Possibly You didn't think he had it.
Speaker 10:58
Damn.
JaVale McGee· Guest0:59
He did, he did.
Speaker 11:00
Shout out to Ray J, man. He'll make a deep run then.
JaVale McGee· Guest1:02
Yeah.
Speaker 11:02
Princess is looking good right now too.
JaVale McGee· Guest1:03
Yeah, she's killing- They might have to meet up ... she's killing them one more time.
Speaker 11:05
Yeah. Yeah, she's been- Right ... stacking.
JaVale McGee· Guest1:06
She won one also, huh?
Speaker 11:07
Yeah, she's nice.
JaVale McGee· Guest1:09
Pretty good.
Speaker 11:09
You play a lot of poker?
JaVale McGee· Guest1:10
I play a little. You know, I dabble.
Speaker 11:11
Okay.
JaVale McGee· Guest1:12
Yeah.
Speaker 11:12
You play in a lot of hoops lately?
JaVale McGee· Guest1:13
Absolutely. It's the only thing I really play.
Speaker 11:15
[laughs] You don't take time off though?
JaVale McGee· Guest1:16
Not really. No.
Speaker 11:19
So it's like year-round?
JaVale McGee· Guest1:19
Yeah.
Speaker 11:20
Damn.
JaVale McGee· Guest1:21
Absolutely.
Speaker 11:21
What'd you think of the Olympic run recently?
JaVale McGee· Guest1:23
It was amazing, man. It was amazing. Seeing the greatest in the world play against the greatest in the world.
Speaker 11:28
Yeah.