You call yourself a basketball fan and you haven’t heard of Arvydas Sabonis?
Whilst that question may have been asked, dripping with snark, circa 1995, it’s simply redundant now. Once upon a time, Sabonis was the greatest baller not in the NBA (alongside Brazilian superstar Oscar Schmidt). A Lithuanian native, he remained in the then-Soviet Union, followed by Spain, plying his phenomenal trade as a “7’3″ Larry Bird” (quote by Bill Walton).
Sabas was a ridiculous player — the ultimate combination of finesse, power, size and smarts. He was the type of guy that you would create for yourself in a video game and your friends would laugh at how ridiculous it was.
And all the while, he was not competing against the world’s best players, despite being in his prime, dominating Europe with Zalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania), Forum Valladolid (Spain) and Real Madrid (Spain). Before leaving the Euroleague for the NBA in 1995, after already depleting his body through serious injury in the late ’80s, Sabonis put up the following ridiculous numbers for Real Madrid: 22.8ppg, 13.2rpg, 2.6bpg and 2.4apg — remember, they play 10 minute quarters.
Already aged 31 when he join the Portland Trail Blazers, with a body worn down by eight European Player of the Year awards and countless hours clocked up in the Soviet national program, Sabonis had an impressive (yet short) NBA career by anyone’s standards, but light years away from what he could’ve been.
For a taste of what he was like in his prime, take a look at the agility shown by the big man in this 1986 video from the World Championships of Basketball, where he took on the likes of David Robinson with Team USA. Sabonis was dunking like a wildman, swatting shots and stepping out to nail threes. In short, unstoppable. Most NBA fans would never have seen this agility from him, as they were sufficiently awed by his passing ability, shooting and slow-but-sure low post defence against Shaquille O’Neal.
You know how the rest goes. Eventually he made it to the NBA, he became a fan favourite for the Blazers and ultimately retired when the toll of injuries became too much. And so many people will forever wonder “what if?” I’ll say this, if Sabonis had joined the Blazers in any of the years immediately after his 1986 drafting, you wouldn’t be talking about any Chicago Bulls three-peat. Imagine this phenom added to the already impressive Clyde Drexler/Terry Porter/Jerome Kersey/Buck Williams teams of the late 80s and early 90s.
But I digress. Approximately a year ago, Sabonis was inducted to the FIBA Hall of Fame, and I felt an immense honour just being in the same building as him when he was presented at centre court during the 2010 World Championships in Turkey. Then in 2011 he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the tallest ever to receive the call. Great respect was shown to a phenomenal basketball player.
Then, last month, Sabonis suffered a heart-attack whilst playing basketball in his home country, the basketball-mad Lithuania. Thankfully it was deemed non-life-threatening, however it has presented some limitations on what he can do in his daily life. According to an AFP article, the 46-year old has been told to cut out certain activities:
“The doctors told me, ‘You can’t smoke, you can’t drink, you can’t play basketball.’ So of the things I like, only sex is left,” Sabonis told Lithuanian media at the clinic in his hometown, the central city of Kaunas.
“The doctors decided this. I’m a newcomer here so I do what I’m told,” he was quoted as saying by the news website lrytas.lt.
Enjoy what you can, big man.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fyzUZWVLJy8
