JaVale McGee wants to stay in Philadelphia, mentor Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid

found a taker for JaVale McGee and his contract. They gave up a pick to ship the talented but, well, eccentric big man to the Sixers, and the logical conclusion was that the Sixers would buy McGee out of his deal, which will pay him upwards of $11 million this year and next.

But not only are the Sixers not planning on buying out McGee, he doesn’t want to get bought out. From Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“I don’t want to get bought out,” said McGee, a 27-year-old in his seventh NBA season. “That’s not a positive thing. When you think about it, you don’t get all of your money when you get bought out.

“So it doesn’t make sense why someone would want to get bought out unless they are older – older and they want to go to a contender or something. I’m not that old. I just want to play basketball.”

More importantly, McGee sees himself as a potential mentor for Sixers bigs Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid, and anytime the words “JaVale McGee” and “mentor” appear in the same sentence, there’s potential for amazingness:

McGee also sees this as an opportunity to mentor rookie centers Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid. In addition to backing up Noel, McGee said he can help with the young players’ confidence.

“When I was with the Wizards, I think it was my sophomore year, we won like 19 games,” he said. “So I’ve been in the same situation. I’ve just definitely got to get these young guys’ heads into it where they stay positive, keep playing hard, just look for wins and [learn] how to win.”

At the very least, he can mentor Embiid on his Twitter game, which has all-world potential but has so far fallen victim to a lot of rookie mistakes.