At just over six and a half feet tall, Dennis Rodman might not be as tall as the 7’1″ Shaquille O’Neal, but he was once extremely successful in guarding the big man.

During a game between Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Shaq had already scored 23 points in the first half. Bulls coach Phil Jackson wasn’t initially convinced with the idea of having Rodman to guard Shaq. But he eventually did it in the second half. And incredibly, Shaq hardly scored in the second half. He scored five points in the first five minutes of the second half and none in the game since then.

Towards the end of the game, a frustrated Shaquille O’neal was involved in an altercation with Rodman. Players from either side pulled them away and stopped it from becoming bigger.

Rodman has always been strong on the defensive end of the court. In his 14 years in the NBA, he was a seven-time rebounding champion. He also won the Defensive Player of the year twice in his career.

Dennis Rodman couldn’t deal with Shaquille O’Neal & Kobe Bryant

After playing for the Bulls, Rodman joined Los Angeles Lakers in 1999. It was when Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal had already formed a partnership at the Lakers. Although Rodman stayed in Los Angeles for a very short period, he was fed up with the duo of Kobe & Shaq.

He talked about it in a more recent interview when he said he couldn’t deal with the duo even though they were winning as a team.

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“So I start playing, right, we won 10 games in a row,” Rodman said. “Ten games in a row when I got there, right? I said, ‘Jerry, I gotta take a break.’ One reason: Shaq and Kobe. I couldn’t deal with those [expletives]. I’m not going to lie to you, I couldn’t deal with them. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m not used to this,’ right? I’m used to winning, but I can’t deal with these [expletives expletive-ing] every [expletive] game. Like, [expletive]. I mean, every, I’m like, [expletive], we’re winning, what? So I go and I say … ‘I’m so used to having calm and serenity and stuff like that.’”