Bryant Reeves (born June 8, 1973) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. Reeves spent his entire career with the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

Vancouver Grizzlies The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1995, along w ...

, playing with the team from 1995 until 2001. He was nicknamed "Big Country" by his college teammate

Byron Houston Byron Dwight Houston (born November 22, 1969) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'5", 250-pound power forward, he played collegiately for Oklahoma State University and was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round (27t ...

after Reeves was amazed following his first airplane flight across the United States, having grown up in the small community of

Gans, Oklahoma Gans is a town in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, United States. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 312 at the 2010 census, an increase of 50 percent over the figure of 208 recorded in 200 ...

College career

Standing tall and weighing between , Reeves was an imposing physical presence on the court and was primed to become a dominant

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

in the NBA. He had a strong collegiate career with

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

, where he averaged 21.5 points per game as a senior and led OSU to the 1995 Final Four.

Professional career

Vancouver Grizzlies (1995–2001)

Reeves became the Grizzlies' first-ever draft choice, selected sixth overall in the 1995 NBA draft. 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. 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 Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

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.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

, - , align="left" , 1995–96 , align="left" ,

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, 77 , , 63 , , 24.9 , , .457 , , .000 , , .732 , , 7.4 , , 1.4 , , 0.6 , , 0.7 , , 13.3 , - , align="left" , 1996–97 , align="left" ,

, 75 , , 75 , , 37.0 , , .486 , , .091 , , .704 , , 8.1 , , 2.1 , , 0.4 , , 0.9 , , 16.2 , - , align="left" , 1997–98 , align="left" ,

, 74 , , 74 , , 34.1 , , .523 , , .000 , , .706 , , 7.9 , , 2.1 , , 0.5 , , 1.1 , , 16.3 , - , align="left" , 1998–99 , align="left" ,

, 25 , , 14 , , 28.1 , , .406 , , .000 , , .578 , , 5.5 , , 1.5 , , 0.5 , , 0.3 , , 10.8 , - , align="left" , 1999–00 , align="left" ,

, 69 , , 67 , , 25.7 , , .448 , , .000 , , .648 , , 5.7 , , 1.2 , , 0.5 , , 0.6 , , 8.9 , - , align="left" , 2000–01 , align="left" ,

, 75 , , 48 , , 24.4 , , .460 , , .250 , , .796 , , 6.0 , , 1.1 , , 0.6 , , 0.7 , , 8.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 395 , , 341 , , 30.6 , , .475 , , .074 , , .703 , , 6.9 , , 1.6 , , 0.5 , , 0.8 , , 12.5 , -

Personal life

Bryant was the subject of

Kathleen Jayme Kathleen Jayme is a Canadian documentary filmmaker from Vancouver, British Columbia. She is most noted for the films '' Finding Big Country'' and ''The Grizzlie Truth'', which examine the history of the ill-fated Vancouver Grizzlies of the Nationa ...

's documentary film '' Finding Big Country'' in 2018.Dana Gee
"Finding Big Country documentary answers the whatever happened to question"
''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'', December 4, 2018. Following his career, Reeves went back to Oklahoma and is now a cattle farmer and a family man.

References

External links

Historical Player Profile
at

NBA.com The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

*
TheDraftReview.com: Bryant Reeves's NBA Draft History Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeves, Bryant 1973 births Living people All-American college men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Canada American men's basketball players Basketball players from Arkansas Basketball players from Oklahoma Centers (basketball) Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball players People from Sequoyah County, Oklahoma Sportspeople from Fort Smith, Arkansas Vancouver Grizzlies draft picks Vancouver Grizzlies players