JaVale McGee is Already Dominating in Australia
Most other men’s professional basketball leagues start a little earlier than the NBA, including the top tier Australian league, the NBL, which began play this week. And if Game One of the 2025-26 NBL calendar is anything to go by, former Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors center JaVale McGee is going to have himself a fun year.
McGee, the 16-year NBA veteran, is continuing his pro basketball life outside of the world’s best league, and keeps ringing up titles, including one earlier this calendar year in Puerto Rico. Despite turning 38 next January, he continues to run and jump like a man half his age. And it appears as though few in Australia will be able to keep up with him.
In his first game for his new team, the Illawarra Hawks, McGee posted 32 points and 12 rebounds on 15-20 shooting, to go along with two assists, two steals and three blocks, all in only as-near-as-is 31 minutes of game time. His Hawks lost the game anyway, 91-86, to the Tasmania JackJumpers. But at some point, McGee’s responsibility for that must end. If nothing else, he was excellent.
McGee’s Game Somehow Defying Time
McGee’s game was always built around his excellent athleticism, And it still is.
Seven feet tall and with both a high and quick jump, McGee plays above the rim more than most, and is always a lob or dump-off threat on the offensive end. At an age where many start to lose their boast, or at least their lateral speed – see, for example, DeAndre Jordan, who can still get up with a running start but who has not been as spry over his past couple of seasons with the Denver Nuggets as he was in his prime with the Los Angeles Clippers – McGee has not.
By and large, McGee has avoided injury in his career, further allowing him to retain his mobility and verticality. Because of that, and because of the experience and wisdom gained along the way, the player who was once a figure of such widespread ridicule is now a coveted veteran, even on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
The New Standards Of Australian Basketball
The standard of play in Australia’s NBL has been on a 15-year upswing, and is now one of the better standard of team competitions outside of the NBA. Certainly, it is absolutely one of the best non-NBA leagues outside of Europe. Former NBA players within the league this season along with McGee will include Dylan Windler, Jaylen Adams, Zylan Cheatham, Derrick Walton Jr, Joe Wieskamp, Xavier Cooks, Isaac Humphries and Matthew Dellavedova – in a ten-team league, that spread is not too thin.
By way of contrast, McGee’s opposing number in this game – JackJumpers starting center and former New Orleans Pelicans bench player and recent Memphis Grizzlies summer league invitee Will Magnay – recorded only seven points and eight rebounds going the other way. Magnay is an athlete himself, even after a serious foot injury, yet his inability to contain the sprightly McGee shows how easy JaVale still seems to find it all.
If it truly was easy, everyone would be doing it. As it is, only JaVale McGee is.
