2016 NBA champ hilariously describes guarding prime Shaquille O'Neal: "Imagine trying to foul a tree moving like a cat"

Guarding someone like Shaquille O'Neal during his days as an NBA player was no easy task. He was listed at 7-foot-1 and weighed more than 300 pounds when he was still playing and he combined that size with his explosiveness to dominate inside the paint.

Channing Frye, who won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, shared his own story on how difficult it was to guard Shaq. Frye told his "Road Trippin" co-hosts Richard Jefferson and Allie Clifton as well as Duncan Robinson and Davis Reid of "The Long Shot" podcast this story in 2022.

Frye used one of his personal experiences when he was still a young player with the New York Knicks.

"There's no fouling," Frye said. "Imagine trying to foul a tree moving like a cat and just dunk after hook shot after dunk. It's just impossible to move a human that big and that, he's mean."

Channing Frye started his career with the New York Knicks as a rookie during the 2005-06 season and played there for two seasons. At that time, Shaquille O'Neal was already in his mid-30s and was playing for the Miami Heat.

While he was not putting up the same numbers he had when he was with the Orlando Magic and the LA Lakers, Shaq was still a dominant force.

During his time with the Heat, he averaged 19.6 points, 9.1 rebounds, as well as 1.9 blocks.

---

Channing Frye uses a combination of two current NBA stars to describe Shaquille O'Neal's game

Channing Frye got to face Shaquille O'Neal a total of 15 times during his career. As such, it is fair to say that Frye is quite familiar with just how difficult it was to contain Shaq.

Aside from creating a hilarious analogy where he likened the former NBA MVP to a tree with cat-like movement, he also drew up a more realistic comparison. In the same podcast episode, Frye combined the attributes of two current players to describe Shaq's game.

Those two players are Rudy Gobert and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Specifically, Frye said that Shaq could be likened to a player who had Gobert's size while also having Giannis' attitude.

Channing Frye and Shaquille O'Neal played against each other a total of 15 times, and Shaq's side came out victorious in nine of these battles. Shaq averaged 13.2 points and 7.9 rebounds against Frye's teams but Frye was not always Shaq's primary defender.

Additionally, most of these matchups happened during the twilight of Shaq's career, when he was with the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Boston Celtics.

Despite his advanced age, Shaq still displayed dominance and used his experience against the teams he competed with. As such, players like Channing Frye still witnessed and were able to share tales of just how much of a nightmare Shaq was to guard even toward the end of his career.