Arvydas Sabonis

[PaPaK]

and yes in my opinion he was the best center ever, i stand by that and many others will agree

[PaPaK]

You are a dumb ass. You easily forget that a 22 yrs.old Shaquille O'Neal won the 1994 FIBA World MVP.

Sabonis was a good basketball player, but he's not as good as Hakeem and Shaq.

yeah that was back when he couldnt move players out of the way with his ass so i respect that. i rate Shaq above MJ in terms of dominance but dont tell me Sabonis was as good as him or Hakeem coz he was Edit: and better in many facets of the game, shooting, passing, ball handling, basketball IQ..

[Sarcastic]

Sabonis was an extremely skilled shooter and passer, but he is far from GOAT center.

I wish he came to the NBA in his prime so we could get a better idea of how he would fare against the best competition, but he didn't.

[Go Getter]

what a ****ing ignorant ****. there is more to basketball than the NBA you do realize that? and you do realize that Sabonis was still a decent player in the NBA as a 31 year old with shattered knees, even as a 35 year old he got to the western conference finals with the Blazers, you do realize that?

Its not a "what if", the guy was dominant, easily the best European player ever even compared to Petrovic, Nowitzki, Divac etc. Its not a "what if" if you watched him play which i know for a fact you didnt otherwise you wouldnt sound like a ****ing moron

yeah lets not forget he went back to Euroleague.. AS A 39 YEAR OLD where he led his team to the top 16 stage and was named the regular season MVP.

The others you mentioned are arguably better but he was ****ing better than Russel, Robinson, Ewing and Mourning

Dude calm down it's not that serious.

[PaPaK]

Sabonis was an extremely skilled shooter and passer, but he is far from GOAT center.

I wish he came to the NBA in his prime so we could get a better idea of how he would fare against the best competition, but he didn't.

he shat all over david robinson in the 80s and drob went on to average like 25 and 12 in his rookie year.. you can imagine what SAabas would do. he proved himself enough, olympics, euro championships, world championships, euroleague even in the nba, if you watched him play you should be able to draw some logical conclusions

on the other hand if you only look at his stats in the nba like some retards do you will sound like a moron. cough jackal /cough

[PaPaK]

Dude calm down it's not that serious.

i get annoyed when people use stats to compare players, especially when its the stats of a 35 year old you know what i mean

sometimes you gotta put the noobs in their place

[Sarcastic]

he shat all over david robinson in the 80s and drob went on to average like 25 and 12 in his rookie year.. you can imagine what SAabas would do. he proved himself enough, olympics, euro championships, world championships, euroleague even in the nba, if you watched him play you should be able to draw some logical conclusions

on the other hand if you only look at his stats in the nba like some retards do you will sound like a moron. cough jackal /cough

Just because he did good in international competition for a few weeks, does not mean that he can dominate the NBA for a full season.

I think Sabonis in his prime would be a great player and be an All Star. I don't think he would be better than Olajuwon, Robinson, or Ewing over the course of an entire season though.

[Go Getter]

Hey do you man put em in their place just don't bust a brain vein while you're at it

[PaPaK]

Hey do you man put em in their place just don't bust a brain vein while you're at it

doing it for the sake of the forum

Just because he did good in international competition for a few weeks, does not mean that he can dominate the NBA for a full season.

I think Sabonis in his prime would be a great player and be an All Star. I don't think he would be better than Olajuwon, Robinson, or Ewing over the course of an entire season though.

why do you think that? Sabas was as athletic as those guys if not more, he was a freak of nature in terms of physical attributes pretty sure he could handle 80 games

and please dont compare him to Ewing lol

[Sarcastic]

Can you please show me a link where I can see Sabonis' stats in whatever leagues he played in?

[Harison]

Just because he did good in international competition for a few weeks, does not mean that he can dominate the NBA for a full season.

I think Sabonis in his prime would be a great player and be an All Star. I don't think he would be better than Olajuwon, Robinson, or Ewing over the course of an entire season though.

Think about it - old and broken Sabonis could solidly play all season in the NBA, with Playoffs after, but you doubt he could do that as young and healthy? I saw him play in prime, and if you dont value fans opinion, look up what players themselves say:

Pippen said Sabonis was "the best European basketball player to ever play the game".

Sean Elliott routinely claimed that Arvydas "should be in the conversation as one of the greatest centers ever".

Hall of Famer Bill Walton describes "Sabas" as "the greatest passing center of all time".

Dino Radja, said that Sabonis would have been an all-star "ten times over" had he played his healthy years in the States.

[PaPaK]

http://www.euroleague.net/competitio...ode=E2003+++++

these are his stats as a 39-40 year old, but you gotta take into account that the scores are lower in europe and the match is 40 min. long and so on.. also people dont really care about individual stats

cant find his stats for pre nba but he got shitloads of awards

* 1984, 1985, 1988, 1995, 1997, 1999 European Player of the Year
* 1985, 1997 Mr. Europa Player of the Year
* 1985 European Championship MVP
* 1993, 1994 Spanish League Finals MVP
* 1994, 1995 Spanish League MVP
* 1995 Euroleague Final Four MVP

[TheLogo]

I have to admit that Sabonis would have held his own in his prime. People remember the Sabonis of Portland who was a shell of his prime days.

It's one of those what if's.....

[Psileas]

Just because he did good in international competition for a few weeks, does not mean that he can dominate the NBA for a full season.

I think Sabonis in his prime would be a great player and be an All Star. I don't think he would be better than Olajuwon, Robinson, or Ewing over the course of an entire season though.

Actually, he didn't generally dominate Robinson as much as people make it seem, if at all. They are hooked by the 2 minutes of that famous Youtube video from 1986, which, among else, includes a play with Sabonis commiting a clear offensive foul while dunking on Robinson, as well as commiting a goal-tending. Of course, nobody mentions that USA won the game. Or that Sabonis, despite being roughly the same age with Robinson, was much closer to his physical prime than Robinson was to his.

Then, people mention the '88 Olympics as another personal victory for Sabonis. Of course they will not tell you that Sabonis scored only 3 points in the second half or that he finished the game with 13/12 while Robinson had 19/12 on less playing time. Or that plays like these ever existed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbUZWx5n0hw#t=3m20s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAms-U7H3AI#t=53s (Robinson moving to the perimeter, stealing the ball, then drawing the foul by Sabonis)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_9I3yCFypw#t=2m25s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_9I3yCFypw#t=4m45s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SziLI8uRJhU#t=1m28s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLGwv6UICIA#t=7m1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qveApg1A8Es#t=1m21s

Or that elite NBAers have lost personal battles against international stars and nobody said anything. Jasicevicius in a couple of games killed elite NBA guards, therefore he must have been better than them. Michael Jordan once scored only 4 points against Puerto Rico, so they must had become the team that figured him out. Duncan lost battles in 2004. Arroyo owned NBA guards in 2004.

I'll take Sabonis' actual NBA career as a much stronger indicator than 1 or 2 international competition games. At his age and for his playing time, he didn't do bad at all.

1995-96 31 POR NBA 73 21 23.8 5.4 9.9 .545 0.5 1.4 .375 3.2 4.2 .757 2.0 6.0 8.1 1.8 0.9 1.1 2.1 2.9 14.5
1996-97 32 POR NBA 69 68 25.5 4.8 9.5 .498 0.7 1.9 .371 3.2 4.2 .777 1.7 6.3 7.9 2.1 0.9 1.2 2.2 2.9 13.4
1997-98 33 POR NBA 73 73 32.0 5.6 11.3 .493 0.4 1.6 .261 4.4 5.5 .798 2.0 7.9 10.0 3.0 0.9 1.1 2.6 3.7 16.0
1998-99 34 POR NBA 50 48 27.0 4.6 9.6 .485 0.1 0.5 .292 2.7 3.5 .771 1.8 6.1 7.9 2.4 0.7 1.3 1.7 2.9 12.1
1999-00 35 POR NBA 66 61 25.6 4.6 9.1 .505 0.1 0.3 .368 2.5 3.0 .843 1.5 6.3 7.8 1.8 0.7 1.2 1.5 2.8 11.8
2000-01 36 POR NBA 61 42 21.3 4.0 8.5 .479 0.0 0.2 .067 2.0 2.6 .776 0.8 4.6 5.4 1.5 0.7 1.0 1.4 2.2 10.1
2002-03 38 POR NBA 78 1 15.5 2.2 4.6 .476 0.0 0.1 .500 1.7 2.1 .787 1.1 3.2 4.3 1.8 0.8 0.6 1.0 1.8 6.1

But did he do better than Ewing at the same age?

1993-94 31 NYK NBA 79 79 37.6 9.4 19.0 .496 0.1 0.2 .286 5.6 7.4 .765 2.8 8.4 11.2 2.3 1.1 2.7 3.3 3.5 24.5
1994-95 32 NYK NBA 79 79 37.0 9.2 18.4 .503 0.1 0.3 .286 5.3 7.1 .750 2.0 9.0 11.0 2.7 0.9 2.0 3.2 3.4 23.9
1995-96 33 NYK NBA 76 76 36.6 8.9 19.2 .466 0.1 0.4 .143 4.6 6.1 .761 2.1 8.5 10.6 2.1 0.9 2.4 2.9 3.3 22.5
1996-97 34 NYK NBA 78 78 37.0 8.4 17.2 .488 0.0 0.1 .222 5.6 7.5 .754 2.2 8.4 10.7 2.0 0.9 2.4 3.4 3.2 22.4
1997-98 35 NYK NBA 26 26 32.6 7.8 15.5 .504 0.0 0.1 .000 5.2 7.2 .720 2.3 7.9 10.2 1.1 0.6 2.2 3.0 2.8 20.8
1998-99 36 NYK NBA 38 38 34.2 6.5 14.9 .435 0.0 0.1 .000 4.3 6.1 .706 1.9 8.0 9.9 1.1 0.8 2.6 2.6 2.8 17.3
1999-00 37 NYK NBA 62 62 32.8 5.8 12.5 .466 0.0 0.0 .000 3.3 4.6 .731 2.3 7.5 9.7 0.9 0.6 1.4 2.3 3.2 15.0
2000-01 38 SEA NBA 79 79 26.7 3.7 8.7 .430 0.0 0.0 .000 2.2 3.2 .685 1.6 5.8 7.4 1.2 0.7 1.2 1.9 2.9 9.6

Or than Robinson?

1996-97 31 SAS NBA 6 6 24.5 6.0 12.0 .500 0.0 0.0 5.7 8.7 .654 3.2 5.3 8.5 1.3 1.0 1.0 1.3 1.5 17.7
1997-98 32 SAS NBA 73 73 33.7 7.5 14.6 .511 0.0 0.1 .250 6.6 9.0 .735 3.3 7.3 10.6 2.7 0.9 2.6 2.8 2.8 21.6
1998-99 33 SAS NBA 49 49 31.7 5.5 10.8 .509 0.0 0.0 .000 4.9 7.4 .658 3.0 7.0 10.0 2.1 1.4 2.4 2.2 2.9 15.8
1999-00 34 SAS NBA 80 80 32.0 6.6 12.9 .512 0.0 0.0 .000 4.6 6.4 .726 2.4 7.2 9.6 1.8 1.2 2.3 2.1 3.1 17.8
2000-01 35 SAS NBA 80 80 29.6 5.0 10.3 .486 0.0 0.0 .000 4.4 5.9 .747 2.6 6.0 8.6 1.5 1.0 2.5 1.5 2.7 14.4
2001-02 36 SAS NBA 78 78 29.5 4.4 8.6 .507 0.0 0.0 3.4 5.1 .681 2.4 5.8 8.3 1.2 1.1 1.8 1.3 2.5 12.2
2002-03 37 SAS NBA 64 64 26.2 3.1 6.6 .469 0.0 0.0 2.4 3.3 .710 2.5 5.4 7.9 1.0 0.8 1.7 1.3 2.0 8.5

Of course, it's well known that Ewing, especially after '97, was not exactly a health freak, while Robinson missed almost the whole '97 season and never returned to top form after that.

[magnax1]

I just got done watching a few Sabonis games from the 80's, and I can see someone ranking him up there with Kareem, Wilt and the other greats in their primes, career wise he definitely isn't near those guys, but he was very dominant in his peak. He probably would've been the best player in the league during the late 80's.