It is definitely not easy to physically overpower The Shaqtus, but Glen “Big Baby” Davis claims to have once done just that.
The retired former Boston Celtics big man Davis was interviewed this week by VladTV. In the interview, Davis shared a wild story about a time back when he was still at LSU that he wrestled Shaquille O’Neal. The legendary O’Neal, himself a former LSU star, had met Davis at a scholarship dinner.
“I was infatuated with Shaq at the time,” said Davis. “I feel like I was a Shaq minion. I ended up knowing him because I’m an athlete at LSU … I got a chance to meet the director over there with the scholarships … one of his advisors and went to dinner at [the advisor’s] house eating spaghetti. And Shaq comes out of nowhere and was like, ‘Let’s go outside.’
“[Shaq was] like, ‘Aight, let’s get down [and wrestle],” Davis continued. “So you know how you wrestle, you get into position. So I’m in the position, and I’m grabbing, holding him. Next thing you know, I slam[med] him down like a wrestler. He was like, ‘Got damn. You’re a big a– kid!'” So that’s how me and his relationship really started.”
Davis played at LSU from 2004-07, so that was right around the time that O’Neal was at the peak of his powers in the NBA. O’Neal was listed at 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds during his playing days, so that is definitely no small feat for Davis (who reportedly measured around 6-foot-8 and 280 pounds in college) to have supposedly body-slammed O’Neal.
The two big men would later go on to be teammates on the Celtics during the 2010-11 season (which ended up being O’Neal’s final year in the NBA). But perhaps we should take Davis’ wrestling story here with a grain of salt since he has said plenty of outlandish things before.
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