Arvydas Sabonis' Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech 

So true.

The soviet union didint let him play it was a lot of political bullshit.

olympic chip, actually, which he did win

It's not as bad the age as the fact as that he moved to the NBA when he pretty much was an one legged cripple. And he still played at the level he did. Boy this guy was something else.

Much much greater he had bad legs to start with in the nba

Arguably one of the most underrated players EVER now, I'd say. In his prime, he was arguably one of the best players ever, top 5 all-time maybe.

Rik Smits was 1 of the most underrated

Hes not really good at english so idk

@@dovydasjakstas4443 I believe it's about personality, about character thing. Oscar Schmidt is extrovert pearson, Sabonis is not. He is a shy giant. His main 'speech' is on the court, where he 'said' everything.

Schmidt has to bang on about how he scored the most points etc. Everyone knows what Sabonis did

πέστα ρε Θόδωρε

Without a doubt. When he was in his prime, he was absolutely amazing. He was like a gigantic version of Larry Bird. Never has anybody that big, before or since, ever had such a well rounded set of skills.

that bullshit 1-wilt 2-kareem 3-Hakeem 4-russell 5-Shaq sabonis got outscores by david robinson twice first in the 1986 fiba championship (robinson 20 pts and sabonis 16 pts) and in the 1988 olympics (robinson 19 pts sabonis 13 pts) sabonis was in his prime at that time if you cant even outscores david robinson there no way you can even be in the top 5 smh

+prince kelvin fuck u robinson is an all star jack ass he once scored 70 i guess michael i out the question

prince kelvin he entered nba at 31 years of age

So you are judging who is better basketball player just by showing who outscores who?:D Lol.

Firat Nacar Kareem, wilt, bill, Hakeem, David Robinson, Mikan, Shaq, Alonzo, Dikembe, and even Dwight Howard are better.

The titles for these clips don't make the distinction between the two classes. Just a generic heading "Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement" The term Hall of Famer should be reserved for those who had elite careers at the highest levels. It shouldn't be "all inclusive" for those who've sometimes made very minor contributions. There Can Be Only One, H.O.F., and to be in it should be very, very particular company If Europe wants their own HOF then they should proceed . Dino Radja and Sarunas Marciulionis were average players in the NBA. I'm glad they paved the way for their country but if every country that puts out slightly above average NBA players ,coaches, broadcasters, amateurs, hot dog vendors, etc etc ..get honored ITS GONNA BE A LONG F"ING NIGHT EVERY YEAR ! Sabonis would've made "the legit" HOF if he were allowed the NBA in the late 80s. They need to change the title to "honorary h.o.f.'er" but a more clear distinction must be made

Well said.

@@monolithgeometry3221 A bit of a late reply but you are absolutely wrong. These guys that you mentioned (Radja and Marciulionis) and many others, Petrovic, Kukoc, Sabonis, Divac, etc, paved the way for the NBA introduction to the international players, they basically proved to americans that there are some damn good basketball players outside the US too. Just think about it, without them, the NBA that we have today wouldnt be even remotely the same, as of right now, 4 out of 5 best NBA players are international. And not just that, they helped popularise the sport worldwide, you have europeans and asian people staying awake till 4-5am watching NBA, and that started with these european legends, thats why they are inducted in rhe HOF and rightfully so. Also one last thing, players like Kemba, Paul George and Derozan are basically locks for HOF, you are seriously telling me they are better players or they had better careers then the guys mentioned above? Give me a break please.

Portland got done dirty... First Walton, than Sabonis. WIthout those injuries, People wouldn't be so quick to talk about Wilt and Kareem. Not that Oden did anything with his career or Sam Bowie but even if ONE of them avoided injuries and played to their potential they could have easily been better than a Wilt/Kareem/Shaq progression. Lucky it seems Portland passed their injury hex to Philly.

@@bli3859 Sabonis was injured before he even arrived in the NBA lol

@@bli3859 Yeah, Portland's history got really screwed because of injuries. Don't forget Brandon Roy either... But Sabonis did the move to the Blazers years after his achilles injury, and the several other significant ones. Before making the move he had to pass a medical and the Blazers' medical team advised against giving him a contract, it was so bad. Thankfully he was still signed. So one can hardly say "man, Portland has bad luck with injuries" in his case. They signed him after his injuries, not before. I think that Sabonis' case was not bad luck, honestly. There's so much a human body can handle, and a 7 foot 3'' frame moving the way he used to before the injuries...something had to give. Someone that size couldn't move the way he did without breaking at some point (one of the reasons I'm really fearful about Porzingis, btw). And he eventually broke. As simple as that. But even when he was playing pretty much one legged...boy what a player.

Vern Pascal Blazers had Sam Bowie, Walton, Sabonis, Oden. No luck at all

Sabonis could shoot the Sky Hook too and Playmake like Magic if he was a center

I knew him way before he came to Portland and, believe me, you haven’t seen nothing. Is one of the top 5 center ever for me.

Cuz he is from people who ready to do, not just talk and waste your time ^^ anyway, all what other guys trying to say whole 10 min, he said on 30 sec, so still dosent matter. The guy still can talk 3 different laguage much better, when everyone on this hall can talk only one.

Yeah but with quality!

Abe Lincoln had short speeches.

He can speak in English, in Spanish, in Russian and in native language Lithuanian ( 4 languages)

@@varneris 5 languages polish too.

Would have never been greater than Kareem or Russell. He’s was great but not on their level

We also hated Dražen :), but always respected him for incredible passion, hard work and strive for victory

@@jonasoskinis7464 I also strongly admire lithuanians for opposing communists from Moscow and keeping catholic faith.

@@marios8120 I think Kaunas team somehow learned that Dražen is staying after training to make additional shots so Chomičius and Kurtinaitis stayeed after training to also made hundreds of additional 3 pointers :) These 1986 Cibona - Žalgiris battles were incredible

trump wardell he is actualy

👍👍👍👍😀

Yep, probably

Same with Yao Ming.

What's equally impressive about this man was that he did all this at 7'3" 290+ lbs...on seriously injured wheels.

and a 3 pointer

don't forget Kersey!

Victor Bruins Porter too

Basketball Hall of Fame

NBA is the GAME OF BASKETBALL!

@Bernard Poindexter Why is he an idiot? because he didn't know something that you did?

Rafael Teles Dawg totally. Basketball is an international sport. Sabonis was legit and one of the first Europeans to come to the NBA. Totally right about Olajuwon, the best center all time.

Yep, the two most skilled big men ever are Sabonis and Olajuwon. Sabonis had better hands, Olajuwon was much quicker with his feet and more athletic. To me the only centres that come close are the more phyisically dominant ones.Wilt, Shaq, Bill Russel because he was impossible to get past, and Kareem because he was just incredibly good at putting the ball through the hoop. A shame we didn't see Sabonis at his physical prime playing in the NBA, even in his late 30s he was fantastic and that Trailblazers team was possibly the most fun to watch basketball team I have ever seen.

Thats Sabas, always been short spoken!

I wouldve liked to hear more of his story as well. Oh well gonna have to sift through Google and RU-vid for it.

Lithuania today is shithole without the USSR 🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏿‍♂️

@@allengreene9954 You are an asshole, the USSR kept all the baltic countries poor, when they became independent countries the economy grew insanely.

There has been no big man with his shooting ability. Shaq shooting threes?

It's his passing which was off charts for a big man like that

he's what my sonics were missing on that 92 to 96 run....GGgrrrrrrr.....instead we had stiff Jim Maclevane and the Drunk Vin Baker

@@mattcoffee1269 Jim Maclevane the beginning of the end! Worst decision in Sonics History.

I totally agree with Karolis.

Uhh I dunno about that bro lol Hakeem>*

Only because he came to the NBA well past his prime. The only player remotely close to him in shooting ability is Yao.

Bass

yes, he was a centar and Dražen was shooting guard 😀