There is just no denying that Washington Wizards center Javale McGee is one of the most physically gifted big men in all of the NBA right now. Standing at a wiry 7 feet tall and weighing in at 260 lbs, Javale possesses the skill set of a small forward trapped in a center’s body. Sometimes that mentality can get him into trouble on the court.
Now in his 3rd season in the Association, McGee was originally selected as the 18th pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Wizards in hopes that he would develop into one of the game’s better big men. After playing 2 seasons behind incumbent starter Brendan Haywood, Javale is being given his chance to shine this season with Haywood now playing in Dallas.
To his credit, Javale “Boogie” McGee is making the most of his opportunity by averaging career highs in scoring average(9.6 ppg), rebounds (8.4), FG% (.554%), and blocks (2.4). He even led the NBA in blocks for a while and now ranks among the top 5 all season. McGee was also invited to participate in the USA Basketball Team trials this summer before ultimately being sent home in favor of Minnesota’s Kevin Love and Dallas’ Tyson Chandler. Javale has made such an improvement in only his 3rd season that he earned a spot on our 2010 All Underrated Team.
He is known to be one of the league’s rising superstars when it comes to dunking the basketball. Javale is arguably one of the best in-game dunkers in all of the league as evidence of his recent posterization of Philly’s Elton Brand and this demoralizing facial alley-oop over the Bull’s Kyle Korver earlier this year.
But things haven’t been all roses for McGee as he was once fined $10,000 for participating in Gilbert Arenas’ gun toting pre-game celebration in Philadelphia last season. On December 8th, he decided to have some fun in the final moments of an embarrassing loss to the Kings by channeling MJ and taking off from the foul line only to fail miserably by losing the ball on the way up and clanging the ball off the rim.
Apparently Javale didn’t learn a lesson in humility as he once again decided to attempt MJ’s famous “Free Throw Line Dunk” in a game against the Miami Heat. With :11 seconds remaining in the 1st quarter, Javale takes off on a break-away and even though Miami’s James Jones sets up in perfect defensive position in front of the basket, Javale decides to once again “Be Like Mike.” The only problem is that he isn’t Mike, he’s Javale, and pulls off one of the worst in-game dunk fails in history:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
