Hassan Whiteside is doing the most of his time in Utah by trying to finally take that final step and play in the NBA Finals. Following stints in Miami, Portland, and Sacramento, Hassan signed with the Jazz as he is trying to help the team make the leap and finally reach the most important series of all.
In the meantime, the big man is having fun off the court, coming up with ‘crazy’ ideas that turned out to be interesting, to say the least. Recently, he sat down with the Salt Lake Tribune to talk about his jeep/truck that looks spectacular.
Whiteside is very proud of his ‘creation,’ giving it an interesting name and showing it off around the city.
Meet Big Shirley.
A 2020 Jeep Wrangler Sahara modded into a truck with six massive wheels, Big Shirley is a passion project for the Jazz’s new backup center. Whiteside bought the car in 2019 when he first joined the Portland Trail Blazers and finally finished work on the behemoth just a couple of months ago. It has 9,000 miles on it now.
“I’m like a big Jeep enthusiast,” Whiteside says. “I’ve got two more Jeeps, but they’re not like this.”
It was created by, in Whiteside’s words, “a mixture of a bunch of crazy people that did a great job.” Whiteside said four car modding shops worked on different aspects of the project, among them SoFloJeeps and Apocalypse Manufacturing in Florida. America’s Most Wanted put a Hellcat engine into the 6×6.
In the end, Whiteside estimated that the crews spent 1,800 hours of labor working on his creation.
The name of the truck is thought-provoking, and Whiteside has the perfect response to why he decided to call the vehicle ‘Big Shirley.’
One final question, Hassan. Why did you name your truck “Big Shirley”?
“You know.”
He pauses for effect.
“She’s big and good-lookin’. Like a country mama.”
Perhaps when he explained his vision to people, Whiteside was welcomed with weird looks. Well, now that the final product is out there, you can say he created something good. Not everybody will agree with that, but nobody can deny Big Shirley looks intimidating.
