Shaquille O'Neal, arguably the most dominant player, hated playing against NBA star turned cattle farmer
In the history of the NBA, Shaquille O'Neal stands out as a player often regarded as the most dominant basketball player. However, there is one particular adversary who uniquely challenged him and that is the former NBA center turned cattle farmer Bryant Reeves.
The former Oklahoma State Cowboy had a short NBA career and only played six years with the Vancouver Grizzlies from 1995 to 2002. In that span, the man known as "Big Country" averaged 12.5 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.
As dominant as he is, Shaquille O'Neal spoke on the NBA Open Court that Reeves was that unusual player he had a hard time figuring out.
"Big Country," answered Shaq when asked by Ernie Johnson on which player he hated to face.
Shaq explained that going against Reeves on a pick-and-roll is challenging since the seven-foot center also possesses a hard-to-read jump shot.
"Because guards that don't play defense they always tell bigs to show," Shaq said. "So I was to show and Big Country be 15 feet away and I would have to rotate back and he had to ugliest Kevin Duckworth one-hand jumper. He'd shoot it and always going (in). And 'til halftime, I'm looking at the stats, Shaq 15, Big Country 26."
In 2002, Bryant Reeves retired from the NBA after some degenerative spinal discs became hard to treat. "Big Country" now lives up to his name as he runs a 300-acre ranch in Sequoyah County.
Bryant Reeves head-to-head against Shaquille O'Neal
According to Statmuse, Bryant Reeves averaged 11.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in the 13 times he faced Shaquille O'Neal in his career. But there was a three-game stretch from 1997-98 where Reeves was a force for Shaq and scored 21.3 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 3.3 apg and 1.3 bpg.
On January 6, 1998, Bryant Reeves had his best game against Shaquille O'Neal doing 24 points,11 rebounds, four assists and two blocks. On the other hand, Shaq had 25 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and three blocks.
The Los Angeles Lakers won that matchup by a 13-point margin in Generals Motors Place in Vancouver, Canada.
Eddie Jones was not far behind Shaq with 22 points, four assists and four steals. A sophomore Kobe Bryant came off the bench in that game with 16 points while Rick Fox also added 16 of his own to the Lakers' total points tally.
Meanwhile, the Grizzlies had Shareef Abdur-Rahim with 21 points and seven rebounds and Sam Mack rounding up the double-digit scorers with 11 points.