McGee, Young now have reason to laugh
In November 2011, to pass the doldrums of the NBA lockout, JaVale McGee and Nick Young — then Washington Wizards teammates — shot a YouTube video in which they attempted the “Cinnamon Challenge.”
McGee coughed up his spoonful of cinnamon, wheezing while he leaned into a sink to lap up water, as Young swallowed his share and raised his arms in victory. Within hours, video of the stunt — part of a YouTube series called “The Nick and JaVale Show” — rippled through the blogosphere, triggering a heavy backlash.
Many wanted to know why, instead of working on their games, two young rotation players for one of the NBA’s worst teams were goofing off on YouTube. More than six years later, McGee and Young are finally shedding the knucklehead label that video helped inspire. McGee, a defending NBA champion, is the Warriors’ newly minted starting center. Young is Golden
State’s backup shooting guard.
“We’ve been through the worst times,” McGee said, “and now we’re going through the best times.”
McGee and Young have long had a penchant for harmless mischief. But in their combined 21 years in the NBA, they have come to understand a curious truth: Players’ behavior is perceived differently based on their teams’ success.
It is a change for two players insistent on not letting how others view them keep them from being themselves. In a Golden State locker room that prizes joy, McGee and Young are much appreciated for their ability to lighten the mood of an NBA season that can often feel like a grind.
They dance at practice, in the locker room and on the team plane. When a teammate looks worn down, McGee or Young will rib each other to elicit a smile. Their Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat accounts offer a near-constant peek inside their lighthearted antics.
In October, McGee and Young read excerpts from the movie “Bad Boys II” for the website, the Ringer. There was the week in November when they took turns sharing candid moments of each others’ bare feet on social media. At McGee’s birthday party in January, Young volunteered to get hypnotized, dancing with a doll and impersonating Michael Jackson.
“They go way back,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “They egg each other on in most situations, which is fun. I think it’s been good for Nick to kind of feel comfortable here, having someone here he’s played with before.”
In 2008, a year after they selected Young with the No. 16 pick of the NBA draft, the Wizards took McGee at No. 18. Thrust into a rebuilding situation with little in the way of mentorship, the two gangly newcomers were forced to play through mistakes as losses mounted.
Washington went 19-63 and endured a midseason coaching change in McGee’s rookie year. The following December, guard Gilbert Arenas — a three-time All-Star — took unloaded guns out of his locker in a misguided effort to play a joke on teammate Javaris Crittenton after a gambling dispute on a team flight. With Arenas suspended more than half the season, the Wizards leaned more heavily on Young and McGee, again finishing last in the Southeast Division.
Within hours on March 15, 2012, McGee and Young were traded to the Nuggets and Clippers, respectively, ending a four-year run together in Washington in which they went a combined 77-210 and did not reach the playoffs. The two stayed close. Each summer, they worked out together in Los Angeles. McGee and Young often talked about someday teaming up again.
In June, only days after winning his first NBA title with the Warriors, McGee met Young at a shopping center in L.A. When he pulled up on Young, McGee, driving his Maybach, rolled down the window and, with a grin, said: “What’s up, loser?” Within six weeks, McGee re-signed with Golden State and Young inked a one-year, $5.2 million deal with the team.
In some ways, the Warriors’ locker room isn’t so different from the one McGee and Young shared in Washington. Golden State, like those Wizards teams, is loaded with easy-going players who appreciate a good prank.
“The difference was that having fun wasn’t accepted there,” McGee said of Washington. “It was looked at different. We were doing the same things — except certain situations, of course. But we were losing, so it was looked at totally different.”
McGee has already had Young on his new YouTube series, “Parking Lot Chronicles,” twice as a guest. On off days, they retreat to one of several recording studios in the Bay Area. McGee produces the beats while Young spits rhymes.
A fan of a burgeoning genre known as “mumble rap,” Young reckons his style is best-suited for the summer. The plan is to release their first song in June, around when Golden State hopes to be in its fourth straight NBA Finals.
McGee and Young have even discussed bringing back “The Nick and JaVale Show” and reprising the “Cinnamon Challenge.” Should he again need an edge over his longtime buddy, Young knows a certain trick.
“I cheated last time,” Young said with a chuckle. “I had a little water in my mouth. (McGee) doesn’t know I did that. To this day, nobody knows. It was fun.”