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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

May 31, 2017

JaVale McGee

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. Are you aware of the report? It seems like a disrespectful thing to say.
JAVALE MCGEE: I don't know who said it and they don't know who said it, so I don't know, it might not be disrespectful, depending upon who it's coming from. Or it might not be real at all.

Q. Do you care who said it?
JAVALE MCGEE: Not really.

Q. It seems to be a strange thing to say to not put a name to it, it seems to be strange?
JAVALE MCGEE: Yeah, yeah, definitely if there was a name -- that's even if it's true, if a reporter was making it up just to stir some stuff up.

Q. Did it tick you off for even five minutes?
JAVALE MCGEE: No, it's an anonymous person. How can an anonymous person tick me off?

Q. Does it add any fuel to your fire at all?
JAVALE MCGEE: No, I done made it this far, so I don't need nobody fueling my fire, my fire is going.

Q. I was going to say you seem pretty fired up anyway.
JAVALE MCGEE: Yeah, right man. We had almost 10 days off and I'm just ready to play.

Q. Is there anything you're doing differently for the Finals that you didn't do during the regular season preparation-wise?
JAVALE MCGEE: No, I'm doing the same things. I'm doing the same things.

Q. When it's a big game like this, how do you balance being fired up enough and not going too far and being too --
JAVALE MCGEE: You feel how you feel at the beginning of the game. Hopefully you prepared yourself mentally and physically, you prepared yourself to be ready for it. So I really don't know until it's game time.

Q. Is today a nervous day or excited day?
JAVALE MCGEE: Today is a nervous day, I mean tomorrow should be a nervous day, but it depends on how I feel. I might not be nervous, you never know.

Q. You worked incredibly hard your whole career and now have you an opportunity like this, I mean what a wonderful opportunity it is.
JAVALE MCGEE: I mean it's definitely a crazy opportunity and I'm definitely blessed and I'm just happy to be here and will work as hard as I can to get this ring.

Q. What do you see from your guys in terms of they came so close last year, probably should have won last year, what will you see in terms of the hunger and desperation?
JAVALE MCGEE: I wasn't here last year, so I don't know what their hunger level was last year, but from what I'm seeing when I've been here, these guys are hungry and we all are. That's all we talk about is the championship.

Q. (No Microphone.)
JAVALE MCGEE: It's a humbling experience, I'm just siting here enjoying every bit of it, soaking it all in.

Q. Is there anything in particular you are bumping in the locker room before the game? Anything in the headphones?
JAVALE MCGEE: I mean, we live in 2017, new music coming out every day. So I'm just like I have a play list and every time I just add new music to it.

Q. Who is on that play list?
JAVALE MCGEE: Everybody.

Q. Just like a shuffle?
JAVALE MCGEE: Yeah.

Q. What's the most excited you ever were to watch a sporting event either on TV or anything?
JAVALE MCGEE: Wow, I mean, most exciting sporting event? I don't know. I have no idea. I don't know.

Q. LeBron is a rival this week but maybe you saw his home in Los Angeles was vandalized in a racist attack this morning. I don't know if you're aware of that and if you have any thoughts on it.
JAVALE MCGEE: I don't know what that's about.

Q. Had you heard of it online?
JAVALE MCGEE: I ain't heard of it.

Q. Can I ask you about the rebounding matchup with the Cavs? Is that something that you might struggle a little bit with? Have you talked about that with the coaches? what's the plan?
JAVALE MCGEE: I'm going to rebound, that's the plan. Work hard on our box outs and just try to keep them off the offensive board especially.

Q. How special is this team compared to all the other teams you've been on?
JAVALE MCGEE: These guys are special, definitely. This is a level of camaraderie that I've never seen in [my] years in the NBA. We're all brothers and we're all in this together, that's what makes it special as a team.

Q. Will you have a lot of family watching you for this game?
JAVALE MCGEE: Finals tickets prices, unfortunately, yes, I will.

Q. How many people do you have coming?
JAVALE MCGEE: I got like nine tomorrow.

Q. Nine.
JAVALE MCGEE: Yeah. It's crazy.

Q. Have you got anyone in particular special coming?
JAVALE MCGEE: I mean everybody that's coming is special to me. I'm not buying no ticket for just somebody random. They're like six or seven hundred dollars.

Q. It's worth it though, right?
JAVALE MCGEE: Yeah, it's definitely worth it.

Q. What do you think of the media squad here?
JAVALE MCGEE: This is crazy. I never seen anything like this in my life.

Q. How do you feel about people talking about you being the favorites? How do you feel about that?
JAVALE MCGEE: It's definitely a positive thing but we got to live up to it. We got to play the game. So as long as we play up to what we have been doing so far we'll be all right.

Q. What's the atmosphere like in the locker room with your teammates?
JAVALE MCGEE: Actually very calm, but determined. Everybody is just, they just know, everybody knows what their role is and what they have to do for us to win these games and everybody's focused and we're ready.

Q. What are the keys to the series?
JAVALE MCGEE: Score the most points. But we got to play defense also. Keep the Cavs off the offensive boards and the boards period.

Q. How much of this is actually work and how much is fun?
JAVALE MCGEE: It's a lot of fun. It's work, but man, you can't call this work, this is easy, this is all fun and this is what we love to do so it's really fun. You got to take in every little bit you can.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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