I am 40 from Eastern Europe. The first names associated with basketball I've heard as a kid were Kareem Abdul Jabar and Sabonis. I didn't know what they look like, what nationality they were, I just knew they were the two best ever and there was no third. Like Maradona/Pele type of thing at that time.
This is the video I've been waiting for! It's bizarre how no one talks about Arvydas even when Domantas is in the league now. Wish more people shared Arvydas stories.
Arvydas Sabonis came into the league at age 32. During his playing time in Portland there was already David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal in the West Conference getting the votes for the All Star team. If Sabonis came to Portland back in late 1980s and helped the 90 and 92 Finals teams win the NBA championship. This would be a different Conversation
Oh he was way better than Jokic. He schooled our Olympic teams back in 87 and 88. Go look. He schooled David Robinson. He busted up Shaq a few times as an old Sabonis.
@@jackson5781Waaaaaaaaaay more athletic, bigger, n stronger. Honestly prob a better shooter too. His passing ability was elite too, but we cant say hes a better passer than Joker cuzz that dude throws some serious dimes. You could go on to say Arvy mighta been the best big of all time if not for injury. He was ahead of his time and a physical specimen
put prime healthy OG Sabonis in his son's place and he would be a 7'3" version of Jokic, would play above the rim much more, block and alter hella more shots, and turn the Kings into a legit title contender
If he was not injured and came to NBA he would be GOAT. I am serious. Prime Sabonis is the best player I have ever seen. Imagine a 7-2, 260lb athletic monster, thst could dribble, pass, post up, shoot midrange and threes, while being an elite post defender and shot blocker. There is no one to compare him.
@@yyynbbggsage7398 😂😂 The league was full of cocaine and crack in the 70s-80s and doping was your concern?? How about recently those LeBron trips to Miami the past few years mid-season. Hair transplant?
I believe Sabonis is what Jokic is today combined with prime Marc Gasol. A do-it-all center that can make plays, stretch the floor, post-up, and even defend.
imagine if he cld come when he was younger! There was a rule in former SSSR amd former Yugoslavia that you cannot go play abroad before 27.years of age.
It wasn’t so much that it was the matchups the only two players that gave mj trouble later on at his position was penny and Mitch Richmond like center was main thing back then now it’s about the wings and solid center play!
@jarrod1766 Sabonis was great, but in no way wld have been enough to beat Jordan. MJ faced way greater centers & forwards than Sabonis in his prime. Sabonis in his prime however may be the most under-rated center of all time.
Sheed has said it was hell for a POWER FORWARD back in the day when you play games back to back games against: David Robinson, Karl Malone, Chris Webber, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwan, Shaq, Ewing, and etc. This era of TRAVELING &PALMING the basketball is TRASH.
Sabonis was dazzling, especially as a passer, although like Jokic he was very deft around the basket. Not as intimidating as his boy, nor as physical, but top 20 all the same at center. I think of him like I do Walton: transcendent talent hobbled by injury yet still played for a long time at a high level.
I'm from pdx area and never loved our "jailblazers"... I'm also a Seahawks fan and starting to think Sheed is the Marshawn Lynch of football.. genuinely enjoyable dude and probably misrepresented
Was way better than Joker. Dude you should have seen him in his prime in the Olympics. Dude was cold. Go look in 87 and 88 against David Robinson. Then look at him when he was old and busted up Shaq!!!
For the triangle offense, he means a good high post, mid post passing. Jordan, Pippen, Grant and Rodman who is an underrated passer himself all played that high post mid post position. The triangle is interchangeable.
Arvydas was past his prime, busted knees and playing against many HOF big men in the league at that time. But still managed to put up 12pts, 7reb & 2ast in less than 20min a night. We were robbed of an amazing talent, he would've been the Jokić of that ERA.
Imagine if you ran a 5 out offence. You Give everyone a chance to post up. If you have post up guards, you create chaos for the defence. And big men are closer to the basket their protecting. Especially, since zone defence was banned.
It really is a shame that players learning today don't know about how great players like Sabonis were. Sheed mentioned Rod Strickland too... another.... ridiculous ball player. An honest assessment of the game today would admit the iso ball skills today on average are better, but... the rules are established exactly to encourage that, and to delete players like Shaq, Dream, Ewing, Sabonis.... etc. because the NBA has decided that scoring more points is more appealing that selling high level technical basketball... which requires players be allowed much more contact which slows down the game. The league is absolutely not better, and overall the players are not better either. It's the worst I've even seen actually. Barely watch it anymore. Everybody wants to be what the warriors were... not even the warriors can do that.
Rod Strickland is one of the most underrated point guards in the NBA. He was an awesome pass. Got you at least 4 rebounds a game. He was one of the few guards in the league that never had is his lay-up shot blocked by Shaquille O’Neil. Rod Strickland got a snub from a few All-Star teams.
The Portland Jail Blazers should have been 2000 NBA champion...... they were the best team but crumbled and couldn't finish the Lakers off. That game was hard to watch.
A healthy Arvydas is better than Jokic because Sabonis was an athlete! Ran and jumped like a small forward...blocked shots.. made every version of a pass (feeding cutters, interior passes to the PF for a better shot, on the break, high post, low post), he made every open jumper and had all the low-post moves like Kevin McHale....AND he was 7'3"!! Once the Achilles, feet and knees started to fail him it wasn't the same. Put it this way... go back and consider he was a shell of himself in Portland, played limited minutes and shared the ball with Sheed, Damon, Steve Smith, JR Rider, Cliff Robinson etc...then look at his numbers!! He was talented enough to still get you 12 and 8 and a block a night very few shots, and they still had to foul him. My dude was getting to the line almost every other shot. Sabonis was a combination of every best NBA big. And that's not an exaggeration. It's just what he was.
Fundamentally, arcades was one of the greatest. Pick and roll offense with Kobe MJ or Allan iverson. If you ranked at each skill set as big man. He’s was 5/5 in every category. Shaq and wilt were horrible shooters and sabonis could hit the 3’s and was a great free throw shooter. . Other big men didn’t have the vision he had when passing, and sabonis had his moments with Shaq where he held his own and that was near the end of his career
@@cheetahturner4576 you don’t know your history, he played against the American national teams and was the most dominant on the floor. 13 point pts 13 rebounds 10 assista in the Olympics ina win vs US national team. Or how about 23 points against the 3x national player of the year who would go to be 1st round pick in the nBA draft. Did wilt shoots 3s and was efficient from the free throw line? What about Shaq?….. if the HOF players mention Sabonis with wilt and shaq then I’m going to mention sabonis with wilt and shaq. Educate yourself before you spread your emotions like a little American girl. You made no point in your comment, other than being emotional and upset lol. Sabonis was 31 year old rookie that was obligated to his contract with the blazers. He wasn’t going to have a10 year career, he wasn’t going to enter the free agent market and get a good deal at that age. If you decide to comment back, be a man, comment with logic not emotions
@@yyynbbggsage7398 is he the exception?? American athletes don’t count, lol…… it was harder for a player like Sabonis to be cleared to play in the Olympics. It was the Cold War era, they committee wasn’t going to let them walk on thru like the Americans…… just recently we saw how Chinese as European athletes were able to slide, but the world has come to hate Americans and aren’t letting Americans roll thru, even if it is marijuana. Welcome to politics. Your comment was meaningless, especially with Karl Malone being as dominant as he was. And let’s not bring up baseball and football in the 90s. Ya seems like American athletes were dependent steroids
@gzsweets dude u fool them team was bums then none was in nba till early 90s only few players made it sabonis was scared on nba waited till got old shaq an other centers ate him up u learn history
facts!!!! after they destroyed us, we had to readjust! same thing happened with olympic hockey, and overall, america dont like to be shown up on the big stage
Sabas was so much fun to watch on that Portland team. Shooting that deep two, dishing from the post and battling Shaq, those were the days at the Rose Garden.
💯 He was cold even in his older age. I remember what you’re talking about. I loved watching him on that Blazers team. His passing & shooting was top tier.
@@ektran4205 That's not true, it was due to the fact that he was under the age of 21, which allowed him to re-enter the draft the following year..... Try again modafoga
Still the best passing big man I’ve ever seen. Just imagine what we would’ve seen if he got to the league at least 10 years earlier. Definitely way ahead of his time. His son, Kevin Garnett, Wilt Chamberlain, Boris Diaw, Vlade Divac, Marcus Camby & Nikola Jokic are other great big man passers that come to mind for me.
Sheed the reallest!! As Sabas told in one of his interviews to Lithuaniaan press "Sheed must have had the biggest hunger for W on our team" pitty they didnt get the chip
David Stern felt the highest rated NBA Finals would be LA Lakers vs LA Lakers! Indiana Pacers won the ECF in 2000 while the WCF went game 7 Blazers vs Lakers. The league doesn’t make so much money if two small market teams are competing in the NBA Finals.
@@bigglilwayne7050 I think Dell Curry made one All Star game. Besides that, when I comes to Father/son duos one is a star the other is a role player or fringe NBA player
I don't consider it a "bad" attitude as much as an unwillingness to play the PC/PR game. He wasn't going stand for being talked down to or gaslighted, which I can appreciate, but it definitely worked against him and the team because...you know...the world. All this is to say that 'Sheed was content to have the truth on his side, but you still have to treat people with respect to get them to see things your way.
I lived in Portland during the Sabonis and Wallace era. My grandmother had a house in the same neighborhood as Sheed. The Trail Blazers at the time had their practice facilities at Lewis and Clark College. I show Sheed drive around the neighborhood in his yellow Hummer. My father was asked by the medical director NBA to be the team psychiatrist for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Sheed would apply himself when he got angry! Sheed got a reputation with the referees for being a hothead. You don’t need the league in technical fouls for two seasons in a row. Sheed felt his emotional outburst didn’t cost the team wins. While in the playoffs the difference on winning or losing a game can come down to one or two bad possessions or plays.
Only reason Lakers beat Portland in 7 was Shaq could play more minutes than thousand-year-old Sabas, and got a bunch of minutes per game beating up poor Brian Grant. When Sabas was on the court, Portland was by far the better team.
99-00’ Blazers team was talented with Damon, Smitty, Pip, Sheed and Sabonis starting. Plus you had Greg Anthony, Bonzi, Detlef, Stacey Augmon, Brian Grant, and Jermaine O’Neal coming off the bench.
99-01 blazers last time i kept up with basketball. Im 35 years old from Memphis. Haven't cared about a team since then other than the Grizzlies 2010-till now. I remember yelling out Sabonis name when i would shot a jumper , joking around everybody else yelling out J
@@cheetahturner4576 see that's how little you think, I'm not talking about just in America. Man y'all show how small y'all think. He was global before you were born son.
Most ignorant basketball guy, as many Americans thinks basketball is only NBA.. Basketball is much more, European basketball, International, Olympic games, world championship..Arvydas Sabonis Top 5 centers of All Times, not All NBA..
Sabonis was amazing in Portland, the only way to imagine is to watch the highlights. It's unfortunate the NBA did him wrong and let Shaq be that fat offensive foul machine he was. Personally, I would take Sabonis in his youth over shaq coming out of LSU. Not to minimize anybody but he played today's game in the early 80's and probably could have been a bull in a China shop if he wanted to be. We could not understand why they were drafting a Soviet in Portland and unfortunately we found out many years later, post Soviet mismanagement injuries exactly why. Rasheed got a bad rap that was undeserved. As a fan of the Portland Trail Blazers. We've witnessed the referees give big market Lakers team games that were dominated by the Blazers. They were a damn good team and we still love those guys, except for Scottie Pippen. He was a lazy dog in heat and seems to still be.
Arvydas Sabonis had the whole basket court in his mind. A passer with the same skills on that matter as of Larry Bird, Stockton or Magic Johnson. Best big man passer ever
Prime Arvydas was literally prime Jokic, only quicker and more athletic. By far the greatest "what if" case, because he was allowed to join the NBA way to late, when he was slow, heavily injured and broken.
It would have been really fun to watch Arvydas Sabonis play before the injuries because he was very athletic with leaping ability and could play above the rim, and a lot of people don't know that about him, and if he hadn't been hurt, it would have been a huge problem and a nightmare for a lot of people to go up against, especially in today's NBA. In conclusion, the Arvydas Sabonis that NBA fans have seen is merely a shadow of his former self.
Sabonis se rompió 2 veces el tendón de Aquiles;conocen a alguien que haya jugado después de 2 lesiones tan graves?.Tuve la suerte de verle antes y después de las lesiones;ya ko dijo el médico de Portland, está para que le den una discapacidad.
