Early Blazers Sabonis.

[Kblaze8855]

Not pre injury. Already mostly washed up. I’d say he was my third favorite center in the league at the time after Hakeem and Shaq.




https://youtu.be/1KO4iy5lc98

[Kblaze8855]

https://youtu.be/Gqceh-0Qisk

[Kblaze8855]

https://youtu.be/dwUIWhYOqVs

[Kblaze8855]

https://youtu.be/XpSmRpXi8ds

[Kblaze8855]

One of you advanced stat lovers go look at his defensive numbers and per from 96-2000 too.

[warriorfan]

What do you think about pre injury sabonis? I honestly don’t really know much about him but have heard some tall tales about him in the past. In the NBA you could tell he had pretty amazing touch for a big man but his athleticism was long gone for the most part.

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

Sabo would throw the most ridiculous passes.

He would look uncoordinated doing it too, but damn if they weren't on the money. He and Mutombo were also the main recipients of Shaq's bows :lol

[SouBeachTalents]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pznGvQ4PTWY

[oldtimer28]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pznGvQ4PTWY

He was awesome!!!

[Round Mound]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pznGvQ4PTWY

Him and Hakeem where te best centers in the world at that time. Had Sabonis never suffered that injury in 87 he would have gone to be a Top 6 Center of All Time.

[86Celtics]

https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2011/04/arvydas_sabonis_injury-marred.html

[Kblaze8855]

What do you think about pre injury sabonis? I honestly don’t really know much about him but have heard some tall tales about him in the past. In the NBA you could tell he had pretty amazing touch for a big man but his athleticism was long gone for the most part.


He was roughly on the level of David Robinson id say but in a less in your face way. He was at least as good as Drob in the 80s when they played(though its overstated how much he destroyed him). And David was 22ish at the time so he was hardly a normal college kid. He was just doing his naval service before coming to the NBA.

He likely would be on the Ewing level at least though he didnt really push his scoring much in europe. More in the flow scorer. Lots of putbacks and non set plays....but he was such a load one on one too. And ive seen him hitting 3s off the dribble, throwing every pass you can imagine, and breaking backboards on one handed dunks and not by hanging on the rim like most do. Id say he was low end Zo level high end peak Ewing or normal David Robinson. But my point is that even broken down....he was maybe a half step behind current Jokic if not his equal. He couldnt play the minutes and was always hurting from this or that....but he was a top center. Not as a hypothetical. He was an all star level center without the minutes to produce like it for a good 3 years.

[JBSptfn]

It's too bad that he didn't come over to Portland healthy in 1990. They would have won at least two in a row, if not more.

[Reggie43]

Could his son fulfill the promise of what his dad could have been or something close to it? I know we are in a softer/faster paced era but Domas is currently producing some strong numbers at age 23 and is probably still going to get better or do you guys think he is already close to his ceiling in terms of actual impact?

If Arvydas had the makings of an Mvp caliber player could his son be a player like Kemp or Mourning in terms of impact?

[west_tip]

Interesting. Just got hold of a copy of Jailblazers by Kenny Eggers yesterday. About 50 pages in.....

Apparently was somewhat of a loner on those teams, which makes sense given what a random collection of personalities he was with, Rod Strickland, Cliff Robinson, JR Rider, Sheed & 17 year old Jermaine O'Neal, coached by PJ Carlesimo who was of course a disciplinarian. When you look at the success Adelman had with Divac it is a crying shame that he did not get to coach Sabonis.

[NugzFan]

wow, this dude is almost as good of a passer as jokic. had no idea. :applause:

[insidehoops]

Sabonis is one of my favorite passing centers of all time.

Vlade Divac too.