Arvydas Sabonis vs Ralph Sampson 

wish sabonis would have had more years in the nba and sampson as well .

I saw this game on TV. Virginia won but it took them 2OT to win, Sabonis outscored Sampson 21 to 13 but Sampson grabbed 25 rebounds and nine blocked shots.

Fine upload - 2 of the great what ifs in nba history and both hall of famers. I bet at this point they had never faced an opponent like what they saw on this night

Amazing upload! I've never seen this before.

Great footage. Sabonis wasn't quite as aggressive offensively and not nearly as strong as he became later. Sampson looked very strong and confident but didn't shoot very well. This might be the first time I saw Sampson in college. He was a beast.

Kind of funny to see a young skinny Sabonis . I love watching Sampson's ferocity when he rebounds, and I like Sabonis passing and fundamental around the basket. This match up is way more competitive and interesting than Sabonis vs David Robinson in the Olympic clips I just saw before this. In that clip Robinson seemed soft or intimidated for some reason, which irritated me, haha. Thx for posting this way better giant battle!

Two great what-might-have-been players. Both of their careers never recovered from repeated leg injuries, their coaches ran them to hard and didn't give them enough time to recover

Imagine if Sabonis was allowed to play college ball during the early 80s. In this game, he was a high school senior. He would had been in competition with MJ, Ewing, Hakeem, Worthy, Perkins, of course Ralph Sampson.

Sabonis was becoming the best big man ever until injuries to his legs reduced him to a shell of himself, even so, he was still a productive player in the NBA.

great footage!!

Imagine the teams that the USSR and Yugoslavia would have if they didn’t dissolve???

Τhis is the earliest footage we have from Sabonis, one month before his 18th birthday. Indeed, his basketball qualities are already evident. I wonder, are there any more videos from that tour of the USSR team over US in November 1982? I couldn`t find any on RU-vid. This video, by the way, misses an impressive stop he did on Sampson, who was taller and older and more athletic than him. Sampson himself did a couple of stops on Sabonis as well. The whole game is available on youtube, complete with vintage tv commercials and announcements of next episode of ''Dynasty'' tv serial! At the beginning, there is a special mention about Sabonis and Sampson, as outstanding players of their teams. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WvvzW29VT7g.html

Smooth shot Sabonis

Biriukov!!!

Sabonis at 18 was ready to be top 5 center in NBA. Ralph was 4 years older and was sweating to compete with the Lithuanian legend

Sabonis a beast

Sabonis gelmiş geçmiş skora her durumda etki edebilen tek baketbolcudur .hayranları dünyanın tümünde mevcuttur. ABD li basketbol severlerin sabonis in gelip ABD de turnuva yapmasını ne derece istediğini hatırlıyorum

to those of you in America: Think of Sabonis as a 7'4" Dirk Nowitzki, with Jason Kid's handles and court vision.

best center ever!!

17 years old....217 cm, against a outcome profesional Ralph 219 cm. Who would think that in 4 years Sabas would be 222 cm an way way better and stronger than Sampson...who;s career ended let's be honest in 1988.

sabonis is 4 years younger, practically kid in this footage. His prime came when he was like 22. That sabonis would totally destroy this sampson. He was taller few inches and had bigger body by 1986

It ends with tied score in second overtime!!!!

💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕

Those USSR surgeons did a number on that knee(s).

WTF no 3pt line in a 1982's game?...

looks like Sampson get more than 20 rebounds in this game

Someone explain me how the soviets lost to an university. Must be an U-20 team I suppose.

Sabonis EAT Sampson !

Soviet team were an underage team .. all college tage ...the oldest 22 ..at the time ...euro competition had an u23 competition ...

How Sapson could have been 7'4 if he's smaller than 18 years old 7'2 (later 7'3) Sabonis??

I saw a young Sabonis feasting over a young (but older) Sampson.

Τσαμπερλειν Τζαμπαρ Σαμπονις Οι τρεις μεγαλύτεροι σέντερ όλων των εποχων

Sabas would have obviously been a top 10 all time great hadn't been for the injuries.

Sabonis here in 1982 is just a kid, just 17 yers old boy...7'0,5" not 7'2" and 235 pounds. Sampson never was 7'4", he was 7'2,5". We all know it. Will grow, will get stronger and in 1986 will be 7'3" and 270 pounds

Even at this age, Sabonis is levels above Sampson.

Sabonis at 18 was equal to the best college player at that time... plus he didn't have Sampson's poor temperament.

UVA won 94-87

When us college basketball was the second strongest competition in the world and could keep up with the all mighty professional USSR.thats the nba moder problem,college basketball don't bring up the best players anymore.money talks shit walks.sad

@ great centers,,Samson rebounding like Wilt gave him lessons!

Sabonis was 218..stlill growing - till 222. Sampson was never more than 219. Never

I hated UVA and Ralph so much I wanted the USSR to win.

The Russians lost.