Backboard Smash Session Forces UCLA to Wait, Wonder

They didn’t get onto the court until about 90 minutes after the shattering, but UCLA was fully aware that Bryant (Big Country) Reeves had shattered a Kingdome backboard during Friday’s workouts.

Not surprisingly, UCLA senior center George Zidek, who has known for a week that his play against the 7-foot, 293-pound Reeves will be the most-watched matchup of the game, was the first Bruin asked about the idea of smashing backboards.

“It’s my dream,” Zidek said with a wistful grin at UCLA’s media conference.

Later, Zidek downplayed the significance of the damage done. “Even if you try, sometimes you can’t do it,” he said. “I’m not looking at it as any kind of personal challenge.

“But I could just imagine, there were so many people, how long it took to fix a backboard in front of 20,000 people. It had to be funny.”

It took the Kingdome crew about 20 minutes to replace the backboard.

Senior forward Ed O’Bannon said Zidek laughed when he found out.

“He’s pretty impressed,” O’Bannon said. “He liked it. He’s a big powerful man, himself.”

And O’Bannon’s response to Reeves? “Wow. I’m sure that won’t be his last. He’s a big man, he should do that.”