JaVale McGee on His Shameless Triple Double Chase

Everyone had a good laugh at JaVale McGee and his triple-double antics this week, but JaVale and his coach find nothing absurd with what took place. From the WaPo: “I got a triple-double,’ McGee said. ‘Who can say they got a triple-double? I’m not really worried about it.’ McGee said, if anything, he was upset that some tried to discredit his accomplishment by comparing it to other failed triple-double quests — such as the one eight years ago by Ricky Davis, who was a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers when he attempted to rebound his own miss on his basket in order to get a triple-double in a win against Utah. Davis finished with 26 points, 12 assists, and 9 rebounds. ‘I couldn’t understand how they was saying it was like Ricky Davis,’ McGee said. ‘The thing about it is, I wasn’t trying to get a triple-double until they started running plays for me at the end. So, that’s totally different.’ Coach Flip Saunders called the plays down the stretch for McGee to get the final point needed for the triple-double and said he spoke with his third-year center about the disapproving response to his accomplishment. ‘Two things, as I told him, I said the most impressive thing, rather than the triple-double, was the 12 blocks — because those were legit,’ Saunders said. ‘Sometimes in games, assists, there’s a question. You give a guy the ball, a guy takes three dribbles and some places give him an assist. A blocked shot, there’s no ifs, ands or buts. You either block it or you don’t.'”