JaVale McGee takes his talent down under as the veteran signs with Australia’s Illawarra Hawks

Veteran NBA center JaVale McGee has recently signed a one-year contract with the Illawarra Hawks of the Australian National Basketball League. The three-time NBA champion, who formerly played for many major NBA teams, will now play in Australia.

The Sacramento Kings was his most recent team in 2023-2024. He also spent a part of the 2024-25 season playing basketball for Vaqueros de Bayamon in Puerto Rico prior to finalizing his move to Australia.

Three-time NBA champion JaVale McGee heads to Australia to join the Illawarra Hawks

Olgun Uluc of ESPN recently reported that JaVale McGee has reached an agreement to sign a one-year contract with the Illawarra Hawks. He played for many different clubs during his 16 seasons in the NBA, making tons of appearances in regular-season games. He is now set to join the Aussies after a 16-year NBA career. He has won three NBA titles with the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. He also earned gold with Team USA at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

He has further played for nine major NBA teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, Cleveland Cavaliers, and others. He also signed with the Vaqueros de Bayamón after reportedly failing to impress another NBA team for the 24th and 25th seasons.

According to the ESPN insider, he scored 17.1 points and pulled down 9.2 rebounds on average for the Puerto Rican team. He was also told by sources that the Illawarra Hawks reportedly needed frontcourt depth for the upcoming season because their long-time center Sam Froling is still recovering from an Achilles injury.

He has had an interesting NBA career. On the one hand, his games are so ridiculous that he was a regular on Shaqtin' a Fool. It was the Shaquille O'Neal-hosted program that makes fun of athletes who do unfathomable things on the court.On the other hand, over his career, he has played a significant role in some pivotal games because of his length and hops. Now, his fans are waiting to see how he performs in Australia.Also read: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors in trade talks for Jonathan Kuminga amid ongoing contract standoff