JaVale McGee is thriving in The Golden State and most likely soon will dance as NBA Champ.
But of course he is, and of course he will.
McGee, you see, is a former member of the Denver Nuggets, and former members of the Nuggets have this disturbing tendency to thrive once they depart Colorado.
This is not a new trend.
Spencer Haywood delivered one glorious season in downtown Denver in 1969-70 before tumbling into a contract dispute and fleeing to Seattle. He was named to four All-NBA teams (first team twice, second team twice) and averaged nearly 30 points in 1972-73.
Or, even more painfully, there's Chauncey Billups, who grew up a quick bus ride from McNichols Arena and dominated Colorado preps during his reign at Denver's George Washington High.
He arrived back in Denver in 1998 and showed promise for an awful team. But the Nuggets, just because they're the Nuggets, soon traded him to Minnesota. Billups recovered from the blindness of his hometown team and led the Pistons to the 2004 NBA Title. (This story has a somewhat satisfying ending. Billups returned to nearly led the Nuggets to the 2009 NBA Title.)
Haywood and Billups aren't alone. Don't forget Carmelo Anthony and Dikembe Mutombo and Chris Andersen and ...
McGee offers one of the strangest stories in the current edition of the NBA. He was pushing 7-feet during his senior year in high school and he was fast and he could jump.
But only two D-1 schools _ Nevada and the University of San Francisco _ offered scholarships. McGee had primitive offensive moves. He tended to confuse and enrage coaches, a trait that stuck with him.
He chose to play at Nevada. Two years later, he was the 18th pick in the first round of the NBA draft. Had he become an offensive force? No. Had he learned to get along with coaches? No.
But he had potential, and the NBA draft is more about potential than production.
Three years later, he arrived in Denver after being dumped by the Washington Wizards. He was still raw. He was still prone to confusion.
But he showed flashes. In Game 5 of a 2012 playoff series with the Lakers, McGee scored 21 points and seized 14 rebounds while running the court like a sprinter.
That one game earned him a four-season, $44 million contract. He still had virtually no offensive game. He still had no clue how to make peace with a coach.
His contract set the stage for the demolition of the playoff version of the Nuggets.
George Karl took a bizarre coaching tour of the NBA. He coached the Cavaliers, Warriors, Sonics, Bucks, Nuggets and Kings. He won more than 50 games 12 times. He rolled to 1,175 total victories.
But he was fired at every stop.
Karl's departure from the Nuggets, after he led the franchise to nine straight trips to the playoff, was not completely due to his strained relationship with McGee.
It was only mostly due to that relationship.
Josh Kroenke, Karl's boss, wanted to see McGee on the floor. After all, the Kroenke family was paying the big man a mountain of money.
Karl, being Karl, refused to follow Kroenke's suggestions. McGee often sat the bench, and Karl even suggested to Chris Dempsey that McGee was "crazy and lazy."
Karl won 57 games in the 2012-13 season. He was fired at the conclusion of the season. The Nuggets have yet to return to the playoffs.
McGee, meanwhile, continues to hint at big things. He's making $1.4 million to play for the Warriors this season, a pittance by NBA standards. But he has potential _ there's that word again _ and that means he will sign a gargantuan contract as a free agent this offseason.
In a brilliant, and brief, playoff splash against the Trail Blazers, McGee scored 15 points (on 7-of-7 shooting), grabbed five rebounds and blocked four shots. All in 13 minutes. For the playoffs, McGee averages 10.5 minutes, 7 points, 1.1 blocks and 3.2 rebounds.
Thursday, McGee arrives in the NBA Finals after his always eccentric bizarre basketball journey. He will be tangling with LeBron James. He will be playing alongside a magnificent collection of teammates.
Karl, also known as Furious George, will likely be watching the show on a TV somewhere.
And those who love the Nuggets will wonder, as they wonder every year, if their favorite team ever will compete for basketball's ultimate prize.
