Bryant Reeves

Bryant Reeves
Personal information
Born (1973-06-08) June 8, 1973
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Nationality American
Listed height 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)
Listed weight 290 lb (132 kg)
Career information
High school Gans (Gans, Oklahoma)
College Oklahoma State (1991–1995)
NBA draft 1995 / Round: 1 / Pick: 6th overall
Selected by the Vancouver Grizzlies
Playing career 1995–2001
Position Center
Number 50
Career history
1995–2001 Vancouver Grizzlies
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points 4,945 (12.5 ppg)
Rebounds 2,745 (6.9 rpg)
Blocks 302 (0.8 bpg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Bryant Reeves (born June 8, 1973) is an American retired professional basketball player for the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies. He was nicknamed Big Country by his college teammate Byron Houston after Reeves was amazed following his first airplane flight across the United States,[1] having grown up in the small community of Gans, Oklahoma.[2]

College career

7 feet tall and weighing between 275 and 300 pounds, Reeves was an imposing physical presence on the court and was primed to become a dominant center in the NBA. After a strong collegiate career with Oklahoma State University, where he averaged 21.5 points per game as a senior and led OSU to the 1995 Final Four, Reeves became the Grizzlies' first-ever draft choice, selected sixth overall in the 1995 NBA draft.[3]

Professional career

Reeves played six seasons with the Grizzlies. After averaging 13.3 points per game in a solid rookie season, he averaged 16.2 points per game in 1996–97 season and was subsequently awarded with a six-year, $61.8 million contract extension. The next season was his best, when he averaged 16.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 1.08 blocked shots per game. During that season he scored a career-high 41 points against the Boston Celtics.

After 1998, weight-control problems and injuries began to take a toll on Reeves, and his numbers fell off dramatically.[4] He was still the starting center for the Grizzlies, but his minutes per game dropped, and his field goal percentage dropped significantly. Eventually, after the Grizzlies moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 2001, Reeves started the season on the injured list due to chronic back pain and was never able to play another game (the only games he played with the team in Memphis were two preseason games). During the preseason play in the fall of 2001, Reeves had experienced back pain and had to be taken off the court on two connected stretchers carried by eight of his teammates. He retired from the league midway through the 2001–02 season.[5] In an episode of Open Court in 2014, Shaquille O'Neal named Bryant Reeves the toughest player to guard.[6]

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1995–96 Vancouver 77 63 31.9 .457 .000 .732 7.4 1.4 0.6 0.7 13.3
1996–97 Vancouver 75 75 37.0 .486 .091 .704 8.1 2.1 0.4 0.9 16.2
1997–98 Vancouver 74 74 34.1 .523 .000 .706 7.9 2.1 0.5 1.1 16.3
1998–99 Vancouver 25 14 28.1 .406 .000 .578 5.5 1.5 0.5 0.3 10.8
1999–00 Vancouver 69 67 25.7 .448 .000 .648 5.7 1.2 0.5 0.6 8.9
2000–01 Vancouver 75 48 24.4 .460 .250 .796 6.0 1.1 0.6 0.7 8.3
Career 395 341 30.6 .475 .074 .703 6.9 1.6 0.5 0.8 12.5

Personal life

Reeves owns a large cattle ranch outside Gans, where he lives with his wife and four children.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ NBA.com player file
  2. ↑ Reeves' Town Reacts When `News' Breaks
  3. ↑ The First Face of the Grizzlies Franchise and a Big Country
  4. ↑ PRO BASKETBALL; Some Scales Tipping Over As N.B.A. Season Tips Off
  5. ↑ Back injury forces Grizzlies' Reeves to retirement
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Hunting+down+Grizzlies+years+later/4312436/story.html
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