YouTube Gold: Ben Wallace Meets Shaquille O’Neal For The First Time

When giants clash, it’s best to give them space to do it.

In his prime, there weren’t many players who could deal with Shaquille O’Neal. He was massive, cat-quick and one of the strongest players in NBA history, perhaps second only to to Wilt Chamberlain, whose strength awed everyone.

There were people who learned how to guard O’Neal though and two players were more successful against than most others: Dennis Rodman, who was relatively normal-sized at 6-8 and 210, and Ben Wallace, who was much larger at 6-9 and 245 (O’Neal was 7-1 and 325 although later in his career he was reportedly much heavier).

This video shows the first time that Wallace guarded O’Neal. It shows that while O’Neal was massive and powerful, a smart, strong and resourceful opponent could nonetheless deal with him.

Not entirely though. Wallace frustrates O’ Neal repeatedly but with a man this powerful, there’s only so much you can do.

Still, like Rodman, Wallace managed to battle O’Neal on relatively even terms and not many people ever managed to do that.