![]() |
|
InterBasket >
Player Profiles >
Arvydas Sabonis, Lithuania
>
talk![]() |
Name: Arvydas Sabonis (AR-vid-us suh-BOH-nis) Postion: Center Nickname: Sabas (Lithuania), Big Red, Sabo, 'Arthritis' Born: December 19, 1964 Origin: Kaunas, Lithuania Status: Retired as player Height: 7-3/2,21m Weight: 292lbs/132,4kg Schools: N/A Drafted: 1985, Fourth Round, 77th pick by the Atlanta Hawks (pick was rescinded because Sabonis was too young to be eligible) 1986, First Round, 24th pick by the Portland Trailblazers Languages: Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Spanish, English Website: sabonis.com & InterBasket Teams (Jersey): Russian National Team (15), Lithuanian National Team (11), Forum Valladolid, Zalgiris Kaunas (11), Real Madrid, Portland Trailblazers (11), IBN Dream Team (First Team) IBN Facts: A fourth round choice in 1985, Sabonis was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks, however the league voided the choice because Arvydas had not reached his 21st birthday. IBN Notes: What is there to say about Sabas? HE is the reason why InterBasket exists in the first place. I remember seeing Big Red play midway through his rookie season, at which point he was leading the league in three-point percentage, I recall watching some highlights of Sabonis on ESPN; shooting jumpers, slick passing and flat-footed rebounds. From there I was hooked and started a webapge on my college server, then moving it to sabasnet.net, and then to where the fansite lives now - sabonis.com. It's always hard to say how Sabonis would have performed had he come to the NBA earlier in the career and I've fought that losing battle in many a forum, however, I always pointed Sabas' 1997-98 season where at age 33 and with heavily-operated and medicated legs, he averaged 16 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.1 blocks in only 32 minutes a game. If you are still a doubter of Sabonis' skills and talent and how he would have performed had he not blown out his achilles tendons and body weighed down by his love of beer, I invite you to read the bolded sentence again then think of an athletic, 80lbs lighter, 23 year old Sabonis (with a mustache and a mullet) in the NBA and tell me he wouldn't have been successful. If you come to the same conclusion, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. Ibn Facts: Back in 1991, FIBA named Arvydas Sabonis as one of FIBA's 50 Greatest Players with the likes of other international basketball legends Drazen Petrovic, Dino Meneghin, Juan Antonio Corbalan, Nikos Galis, Oscar Schmidt, Teo Cruz, Sergei Belov, Modestas Paulauskas, Toni Kukoc, Alexander Volkov, and Vlade Divac among others... the list was determined by votes from a group of international experts and coaches. |
|
|
Arvydas Sabonis Links From our forum: What Does Your Country's Dream Team Look Like?, Have You Seen This Pic Before? Thread Sabonis to play again for Zalgiris?, Sabonis ends his professional career, Lithuania Basketball Forum Article(s) and Resources: A Shadow Of His Former Self Legend at Large Catch This! (SI) Courting a Big Red (SI, 1988) A Lithuanian Basketball Star (Atlantic Monthly, 1986), Nba.com Player Content Page (Nba.com), A New Generation of Stars: History of Eurobasket (Fiba.com), Sabonis.com, |