WNBA champion Brittney Griner has always got the short end of the stick in her career. Though most would consider having the gift of size and inhuman strength as a boon, Griner’s excerpts from her book say otherwise. Growing up, Griner was the tallest in every room she entered. Standing at a towering 6’9”, she is one of the tallest women ever to play in the WNBA. In her 2014, Griner once addressed the struggles of being the tallest on the court by drawing comparisons with Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal.

By the time Griner entered Baylor University, Texas, she was already among the nation’s best players, owning to her massive physical gifts. However, Griner’s towering height and supernatural size down the line proved to be a detriment for her. She had to play ball against opponents who openly attacked her with impunity under the mostly ignorant refs. In her book, Griner made the perfect comparison between her and an NBA legend.

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In her book, Brittney Griner revealed the shocking stories of how she was ignored by the refs who turned a blind eye towards Griner’s opponents. Because of her frame and size, Griner was usually the tallest player on the court, with everyone else having a significant size disadvantage.

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To make up for the size mismatch, most players like Jordan Barncastle used to allegedly deploy a more physical style of basketball against Griner.  Moreover, she used to face double teams constantly and even triple teams. The worst part was that the refs had granted these players complete immunity. Griner harped back on how the players used to literally drag her down to the ground before getting the call. Anything less, and the whistle never blew. Comparing her struggles, Griner gave the example of an NBA legend that went through something similar.

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Griner said, “Look at Shaquille O’Neal; he got mauled out there.” If anyone in the world understood what Griner went through, it was the 4x NBA champion and Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal. 

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Shaquille O’Neal, similar to Griner, had the advantage of size and strength. O’Neal was a man among boys in the NBA. A force of nature that dominated some of the best centers in the league. But his dominance and the ambiguity around his movement in the paint gave rise to ‘Hack a Shaq’. Hack a Shaq was deployed by teams to wear down O’Neal and send him to the line. However, these tricks worked only for so long; the Big diesel dominated regardless and had one of the greatest careers ever.