Possible that a Young, Healthy Arvydas Sabonis the GOAT center?

[Mdog1]

The game of basketball was INVENTED by a Canadian you stupid stupid child. I'm not gonna go around saying I know more about basketball than anybody because frankly I don't give 2 sh[COLOR="Black"]its[/COLOR] but I've made thousands off dollars of my knowledge thus far so that says somthing, and you really need to get off Shaq's dick.... is Kazzam your favourite movie to?

Hey Kazzam was a damn fine movie with great acting and an impecable story. A++ for you Shaq!

[Jinxed]

I didn't watch much of Sabonis from his very young days. But I've read opinions from journalists who did and most of them talked about the things you mentioned in the OP: His ability to run the floor, shoot from any range, his high basketball IQ. But I can't recall claims about his defense.
While we know how much Soviets and Americans "liked" each other, I do recall the mention of a game of the USSR N.T against the Virginia University in late '82. Virginia won and Sampson was credited with 13 points, 25 rebounds and 9 blocks. Sabonis had 21 pts, but there was no mention of his other stats.

Hey I found what you were talking about.

http://www.sabonis.com/archive/artic...ithbbstar.html

Im 1982, The Soviet National team came and did a tour of games against US college teams. They went 9-3 including a win over Indiana. THey did like you say lose to UVA and Ralph Sampson

Ralph was the 22 years old at the time. And the best player in the country. Would be the number one pick in the draft the next year and score 21 and 11 as a rookie.

Sabonis was 18 at the time. And what happened?

. Sampson had thirteen points and twenty-five rebounds. Sabonis, who fouled out, scored twenty-one points and took down fourteen rebounds. Bill Wall, the executive director of the Amateur Basketball Association of the U.S.A., who accompanied the Russians on the tour, says, "Sabonis clearly outplayed Sampson in that game.

And as you would expect Sabas got significantly better over the next four years.

[ShamRockStar]

An Early to Mid 80s Sabonis before his injuries was definetly a 5th Greatest Center of All Time. More than one person has claimed this and this happens to be people whom saw him in the 80s (even an Afro American friend of mine said he was better than Jabbar in the early 80s).

Wilt, Jabbar, Shaq, Hakeem and Sabonis are the Best Centers Ever.

At 6 Id put Robinson.

Bill Walton was blown away when he went to Russia to watch him play. He said that he was close to a quadruple double at halftime and sat the second half instead of trying to boost his stats, he had like 30 points 15 boards 10 blocks and 7 or 8 assists.

He was 7'3" 275lbs

He had very good athleticism, hops, strength, quickness, etc.

He had post skills, could shoot, handles, and PG vision.

If you took Larry Birds brains and skills and put them in Wilts body, thats Sabonis. I saw a clip of him playing in europe in his prime, there is 10 seconds left in a tie game, catches an inbounds pass 18 ft out on the wing. The defender is up on him, his back to the basket. The defense rotates to double and try to force the ball out of his hands and back out to the passer. His team mate out on the weakside wing gets a pick and cuts to the basket and Sabonis throws a no look behind the back bounce pass and hits him in stride for the game winning layup for the win.

[madmax]

hey as a fan of European basketball, tell me how you think Shaq would do right now if he went to Euroleague, I for one think he would be the best player in Europe, seeing as Marc Gasol won ACB MVP and Shaq right now is way better than Marc Gasol plus way more contact is allowed in Euroleague so Shaq could bang way more

well tobe honest with you, Shaq wouldn't be as effective in Europe...he would get plenty offensive fouls due to smart and and very effective european defensive rotations, and he's not very versatile player, so he wouldn' be able to shoot from further out to break down those defences...and there is ZONE, plenty of that in Europe to neutralize player like Shaq, and trust me, it's much more sophisticated and varied in Europe

[Niquesports]

well tobe honest with you, Shaq wouldn't be as effective in Europe...he would get plenty offensive fouls due to smart and and very effective european defensive rotations, and he's not very versatile player, so he wouldn' be able to shoot from further out to break down those defences...and there is ZONE, plenty of that in Europe to neutralize player like Shaq, and trust me, it's much more sophisticated and varied in Europe

Any Euro team if they played in the NBA would be a last place team. Everything I have seen of Sabonis reminds me of Dirk just bigger. And noone calls Dirk a top 5 anything Sabonis was some S***

[gpfanz]

Impossible is nothing.

[Maniak]

Impossible is nothing.

Except in the case of Arvydas Sabonis being the GOAT C

[Niquesports]

That's a gross understatement of the center who is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> than any other center in NBA history.

Larry Bird's brains
Wilt's body
Magic Johnson's passing ability
Reggie Miller's range
Isiah Thomas' handles
Dennis Rodman's rebounding intensity
Michael Jordan's clutchness
Scottie Pippen's perimeter defense
Hakeem's interior defense
Leandro Barbosa's speed
LeBron's athleticism
Mark Price's free-throw shooting

is about 70% of what prime Sabonis was.

Also, since when does doing well against U.S. teams automatically mean that you would be great in the NBA? Carlos Arroyo sure wishes that was true..

And could wear a dress better than Larry Johnson

[Da KO King]

Still don't see how a guy with no moves going to his left would be an all timer C but to each his own.

[Lakas Fan Yo]

No way Sabonis healthy, young whatever is the best. He honestly was not even the best European player of his day (Galis and Petrovic from that era were both better).

Best European center of his era sure. GOAT center without the injuries? Not even close. He wouldn't even be better than Hakeem from his same era even if he never got injured.

I'm not saying Sabas wasn't a great player because he was, his basketball IQ and skills at his size was a thing of beauty - but no.

[inclinerator]

nah pryzbilla is no.1 so he cant be number 1

[Lakas Fan Yo]

hey as a fan of European basketball, tell me how you think Shaq would do right now if he went to Euroleague, I for one think he would be the best player in Europe, seeing as Marc Gasol won ACB MVP and Shaq right now is way better than Marc Gasol plus way more contact is allowed in Euroleague so Shaq could bang way more

Best bigs in Euroleague are guys like Nikola Pekovic, Tiago Splitter, Ioannis Bourousis. Any of the 3 would be a better player in the NBA than Marc Gasol is IMO. I think Shaq would be similar as he is now in the NBA. He could dominate in offense but only for stretches. He could dominate the glass.

He would struggle on defense and really might be a big liability there on that end though because teams would just abuse him with pick and roll and the plethora of bigs that can shoot 3s. Also they would use hack a shack a lot more in Euroleague than NBA teams do.

[Lakas Fan Yo]

Any Euro team if they played in the NBA would be a last place team. Everything I have seen of Sabonis reminds me of Dirk just bigger. And noone calls Dirk a top 5 anything Sabonis was some S***

There are IMO about 5-6 Euroleague teams that are better than the Thunder and maybe 3-4 that are better than the T-Wolves.