Is Sabonis overrated?

[All Net]

Prime sabs was a beast so no

[Nick Young]

nope. not overrated at all. If anything he is prob massively underrated by most while being slightly overrated by a small handful. dont bother with the stats, post some of his prime footage. dude is GOAT modern era center.

over Shaq?

[madmax]

Prime Sabonis was taller, more skilled and tougher version of Pau Gasol...you can draw your own conclusions, but he would be the best center in NBA if he played today

[Nick Young]

Prime Sabonis was taller, more skilled and tougher version of Pau Gasol...you can draw your own conclusions, but he would be the best center in NBA if he played today

he whined too much and was too mentally weak and from what I saw in his Portland days he was not clutch and prone to giving up when things got hard.

[madmax]

he whined too much and was too mentally weak and from what I saw in his Portland days he was not clutch and prone to giving up when things got hard.

I'm not saying he was perfect and yes, he indeed wasn't mentally the toughest guy out there - he cost his Euro team Euroleague title in the 80's and he could be easily rattled by other players. But game wise he was the most skilled all-arround center of all time and dominated Euroleague at the age of 40 with no knees or any athletic ability. So yeah, he was very good

[Kblaze8855]

I think the player he was his first few years in Portland is very underrated. There is a lot of discussion of how good he could have been and not enough about how good he actually was.

[boozehound]

over Shaq?

the last sentence was intentionally over the top.

I will say that, from what I saw (obv very little) of his prime, he has a skillset unlike any other 7 footer. Check the block on d. rob about 30 secs in in this vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mwuNWNSgeQ unbelievable recovery and quickness to stay with it

dude was incredible and played with a much higher motor than d rob in those games.

I do agree with kblaze that his late nba career is overlooked. he was a top (5?) center in the league as a 30+ yr old with no knees. During a period with some great centers still in their prime.

[alwaysunny]

Prime Sabonis was taller, more skilled and tougher version of Pau Gasol...you can draw your own conclusions, but he would be the best center in NBA if he played today

Would you pick him over Dwight?

[boozehound]

Great point. I can make a highlight mix of michael olowakandi and you'd think he's the next wilt. You can't put much stock in mix tapes.

I honestly don't think he should be in the hall of fame. But now that he is, pandoras boox has been opened. And I wonder.... while I'm not well versed on european basketball, why is kukoc not as highly regarded as petrovic and galis? He's accomplished more than they did overseas, as well as in the nba.

the difference is that you have an entire well documented nba career of something like 500 games to make that mix. the mixes of sabas are almost all of individual games.

[boozehound]

Would you pick him over Dwight?

yes, without a doubt (assuming some hypothetical prime). would you take d rob over dwight? I would.

[twintowers]

Dalmatia.

How can you compare Drazen with Sabonis two totally different positions that cannot be more not the same, Sabonis with his size had a killer shot in his prime he shot 3's with ease, passed the ball like a playmaker, my dad brought me footages of him on VHS cassetes from the 80's and saw both Drazen and him play (which you certainly didn't, your age tops 18) and said Sabonis was probably best center ever in europe, yet you say Drazen who without the doubt was the best in europe at his position but comparing those two guys is not possible...Nob

[alenleomessi]

we had a basketball talk in history today and the teacher said sabonis is the best center he ever saw
he rofled when i told him jonas valanciunas is supposed to be the next sabonis
everyone in class was wtf are these guys talking
cant wait for history tomorrow

back on topic i obviously didnt watched him, but from the footage ive seen, info, stats and people that actually watched him, seems like 90% of them think he is the goat european, of course the 10% who dont are greeks and croatians

[nbacardDOTnet]

we had a basketball talk in history today and the teacher said sabonis is the best center he ever saw
he rofled when i told him jonas valanciunas is supposed to be the next saboniseveryone in class was wtf are these guys talking
cant wait for history tomorrow

back on topic i obviously didnt watched him, but from the footage ive seen, info, stats and people that actually watched him, seems like 90% of them think he is the goat european, of course the 10% who dont are greeks and croatians

http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...2&postcount=53

[Psileas]

Sabonis supporters will give you plenty of quotes and that "he killed David Robinson" which he didn't and that he abused every team in Europe but it's even debatable if he even was the best player in Europe at that time, guys like Petrovic and Galis killed their competition as well.

This is what I've been saying, as well. A center who would rank up there with the Wilts, Kareems, Hakeems, etc, would have blown his other European competitors out of the water. Yet, the "Sabonis vs Petrovic" debate is among the hottest European classics, and I don't see anyone rank Petrovic up there with Jordan and Magic.

[chains5000]

He was great, too bad he got to the NBA too late and with a broken body. His game was really complete and he had a huge body too, you can't ask more from a center.