Bryant Reeves

Bryant Reeves

Personal information
Born	(1973-06-08) June 8, 1973 (age 48) 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
NBA All-Rookie Second Team (1996) 2× Second-team All-American – UPI (1994, 1995) 2× Third-team All-American – AP (1994, 1995) 2× Big Eight Player of the Year (1993, 1995) 3× First-team All-Big Eight (1993–1995)
Career NBA statistics
Points	4,945 (12.5 ppg)
Rebounds	2,745 (6.9 rpg)
Blocks	302 (0.8 bpg)
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com

Bryant Reeves (born June 8, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player. Reeves spent his entire career with the National Basketball Association's Vancouver Grizzlies, playing with the team from 1995 until 2001. 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[]

Standing seven feet (210 cm) tall and weighing between 275 and 300 pounds (125 and 136 kg), 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.^{[citation needed]} He retired from the league midway through the 2001–02 season.^[5]

NBA career statistics[]

Regular season[]

Personal Life[]

Bryant was apart of the documentary "Finding Big Country" in 2018. Following his carrer, Reeves went back to Oklahoma and is now a cattle farmer and a family man.

See also[]

• List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 2000 points and 1000 rebounds

References[]

External links[]

• Historical Player Profile at NBA.com
• Career statistics and player information from NBA.com  and Basketball-Reference.com
• TheDraftReview.com: Bryant Reeves's NBA Draft History Page