Standing nearly seven feet tall and packing a granite-like 280 pounds, Vitaly Potapenko usually flattened opponents in his way during his NBA playing days.
That’s why the “Ukraine Train” won’t forget one collision that stopped him in his tracks.
“We’re playing Chicago and I go to set a screen,” said Potapenko, a Grizzlies assistant coach who spent 11 seasons as a journeyman center. “I’m known for setting really hard screens. So I drilled him pretty well. Sometimes you hit guys, especially guards, and they get rattled a bit. But not this guy. It didn’t faze him.