Kings center JaVale McGee hosts star-filled charity softball game this weekend. What’s the cause?

Kings center Javale McGee is bringing his highly anticipated charity softball game to Sacramento this weekend, a first for the region.

Juglife Foundation, a nonprofit organization co-founded by McGee and business partner Kez Reed in 2013, will host its recurring “Water For Life” charity softball game 4 p.m. Saturday at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento.

Their nonprofit organization went public in 2015 and its mission began by simply encouraging people to live a healthy lifestyle by drinking a gallon of water per day. That evolved to educating people on the importance of having drinkable water and providing accessible resources so underserved communities worldwide can have clean water.

McGee, a three-time NBA champion, said the softball charity game is a way to promote healthy choices, inspire others to drink more water and support the nonprofit.

The event in previous years has been held in Los Angeles, Phoenix and twice in Oakland, McGee said. Featured guests in the past include former teammates such as Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Chris Paul and Matt Barnes.

This year, McGee and Barnes will serve as team captains, and they will be joined by rosters of celebrity and athlete friends.

The JugLife website listed the following as featured participants this year: retired NBA player Baron Davis, YouTuber Jenna Bandy, NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, YouTuber and Sacramento native Marcelas Howard, NBA insider Chris Haynes, CBS Sacramento anchor Ashley Williams, Sacramento comedian Lance Woods, former NBA player Troy Daniels, Kings coach Mike Brown and McGee’s sister and former WNBA player Imani McGee-Stafford.

“We’re going to have a home run derby,” McGee said. “It should be a great time. A good family-friendly time, definitely for Father’s Day weekend. So it’s going to be pretty cool.”

Barnes is anticipating the fun and said he’s going for a home run in the game.

“I used to play competitive travel softball when I was in the league, so it’s like riding a bike,” Barnes said in a text to The Sacramento Bee. “Couple swings and I’ll be good.”

McGee acknowledged that there will be competitive juices flowing throughout the event. He welcomes that.

“There will be some competition for sure,” McGee said. “Matt has a habit of hitting homers, so I’ve been working on my swing a little bit. I gotta step my home run game up. But we, Team McGee, are definitely going to win this.”

Gates for Saturday’s charity game open at 3 p.m. and the first pitch is at 4 p.m. Tickets are available at juglifewater.com, starting at $27.

What is Juglife?

Soon after they started in 2013, it turned into something bigger than the two business partners could have imagined.

When the water crisis emerged in McGee’s hometown of Flint the following year, the Michigan native said he felt called to focus on providing accessible drinking water, educating people the importance of it and motivating them to drink more.

“This is a sign, this is something I’m supposed to do,” McGee said.

With Juglife, he decided on figuring out how to create resources to provide access to clean water, understanding that not everyone has accessibility to healthy drinking water worldwide

McGee began drinking a gallon of water a day and would let people know through his social media accounts, using the caption “#juglife.” It was a play on the phrase “thug life,” he said.

It quickly started trending among athletes, fitness gurus and others who decided to focus on hydration.

“It was just like a little small movement that was kind of inspirational,” McGee said.

McGee, whose favorite brand of water is Mountain Valley, said he’s learned some of the healthier ways to consume water such as from a glass rather than plastic or adding Celtic sea salt for natural electrolytes, changing the water’s molecular levels and prolonging hydration.

As a professional athlete, McGee said he’s always lived a pretty healthy lifestyle but didn’t realize how important water consumption truly was.

“For me personally, I’m playing basketball so I’m sweating every day. I’m dehydrated but I really don’t know it,” he said. “That was really what inspired me to where I was like, OK, I need to drink a lot more water. Then I started doing a little research and... I didn’t even know I could drink a gallon of water a day. I started doing that and it just really felt good.”

In turn, he began to spread the health tips that have contributed to his success.

“Mainly what we do is hold assemblies in schools across the country and we teach kids about drinking water and living an active, healthy lifestyle,” McGee said.

Reed’s uncle, who McGee said is a missionary, informed them that Ugandan villages lacked water and needed wells to be built. Reed had a realization that they could start a foundation and do major things, McGee said.

They traveled to Africa and built their first well in Uganda in 2015. They’ve built five in Uganda so far, and McGee wants to continue to grow and expand through helping others in need.

What’s next for Juglife?

McGee said the future of Juglife is going to be continue to expand — both nationwide and internationally.

“Going to different countries,” McGee said about where he sees Juglife in the next decade. “We just want to build water wells everywhere and then expand on our assemblies and what we do going into schools, not just in America.”

He added: “We want to go to schools in different countries also and just teach the kids the importance of drinking water, convincing their brothers and sisters to drink water, their parents, grandparents and just trying to promote everybody to live a healthy and active lifestyle and put down all the sugary drinks and, and all those things.”

The nonprofit plans to continue to host fundraisers, water education tours at public schools, internationally build and maintain water wells and advocate for physical fitness by organizing fitness pop-ups and building sports complexes.