Late last night, word came down that the Nuggets had re-signed center JaVale McGee to a four year, $44 million contract. McGee will join recently acquired forward Anthony Randolph and forward Kenneth Faried, a rookie sensation for the Nuggets last year, in the team's front-court. None of these three players are superstars, and they certainly aren't capable of putting the Nuggets over the top, but they will ensure that a lot of basketball fans will be searching for Nuggets highlights on YouTube all season long.
We'll start with Anthony Randolph, a roiling mess of untapped potential who has never played meaningful minutes for an NBA team but remains in the consciousness of NBA obsessives because of his ubiquity on the internet. He is a quintessential FreeDarko player who is capable of doing ridiculous shit like this and is also prone to letting his emotions get the best of him. Randolph is unlikely to see a whole lot of playing time this year, but when he does get on the floor he is likely to lead his own fast-break before dunking on someone's face. Either that, or he'll end up sobbing until he dry-heaves the first time that George Karl yanks him out of a game.
Then there's Faried, who hasn't had much time to fill his YouTube portfolio but has already managed to bless us with a few gems like this alley-oop, which may have been the greatest first career basket in history. Add in the fact that Faried has a cool nickname (The Manimal), a distinctive look and the tendency to hop around the court like a kid on a playground, and you've got a tailor-made internet favorite.
Which brings us to JaVale McGee. If you like basketball and you use the internet, you probably know almost everything there is to know about JaVale McGee at this point, as he spent all of last season becoming a cult sensation. We gave him his very own tag due to all of his hilarious on-court exploits, his tweets have been collected and curated all over the Internet, and he created his own web series with Nick Young.
Prepare to get more acquainted with the Denver Nuggets this season, basketball nerds.