JaVale McGee joined Whitey Gleason and Kyle Draper for a wide-ranging interview on Sactown Sports 1140 on Monday. He spoke about how the Kings being a winning team influenced his decision to sign with Sacramento, as well as the injuries and other factors that impacted Sacramento’s success last season. JaVale also praised Mike Brown, saying he deserved “exactly what he got” with his extension, and praised the work ethic of the Kings roster as a whole. Of course, all of those positive comments will get lost in the social media landscape, while one major criticism from the interview is currently making the rounds.
JaVale spoke about how the Kings have a lot of nice guys on the team, but the Kings probably need one or two “bad guys” on the roster (this conversation begins around the 11 minute mark). He goes on to say that other teams weren’t afraid of the Kings.
“We had some situations where teams weren’t afraid of us…they weren’t afraid of our energy.” – JaVale McGee on @Sactown1140
He goes on to say he had to address the team after they barely beat the lowly Spurs and it didn’t seem to bother anyone. 👀 pic.twitter.com/YmyY3nlUKS
— Allen Stiles (@The_StilesFiles) June 3, 2024
I think it’s great that JaVale said this. This has been obvious to anyone who watched the Kings the last two years, so I’m glad that the players (or at least JaVale) were aware of it as well. And to be clear, in the context of the full interview, I don’t think this was meant to be a dig at the team as much as it was just an acknowledgement of the reality. I wonder if JaVale’s candor suggests he already knows he’s not coming back next season, or if it’s just JaVale being JaVale.
The challenge is how to solve this issue. The Kings need a player to bring an edge to the team, but it needs to be a player who is still good enough to play rotational minutes. Nobody is going to care if the 11th man is a tough guy. And the talented players in the league who also bring toughness, such as a Bobby Portis, are fun dream trade candidates but aren’t easy to actually acquire. Monte McNair and the front office will have to try to find and answer.
