PRE-NBA

Once considered the best big man in the basketball world, Arvydas Sabonis at age 30 decided finally to test himself against the best competition in the world--the NBA. "This is it for me," said Sabonis in Madrid in May, 1995. "There's nothing left for me to prove in Europe or in the basketball world. Only the NBA remains." A 7-3, 279-pound giant, Sabonis led the Soviet national team to a gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. He also helped Lithuania to a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, and a second-place finish in the 1995 European Championships in Greece. In an 11-year professional career spent with club teams in the former Soviet Union and then in the Spanish League, Sabonis has led his squads to five league championships and has been named European Player of the Year four times by various publications. Born in Kaunas, Lithuania, Sabonis first began playing basketball at age 13. By the time he was 15 years old he was a member of the Soviet national junior team, which proved to be a mere stopover on his way to the national team. In 1983, at age 19, he helped the Soviet national team to a bronze medal at the European Championships. Two years later Sabonis led the USSR to gold medals at both the European Championships and the World University Games. In 1984 Sabonis joined Zalgiris Kaunas, a club team in the USSR League. He proceeded to lead Zalgiris to three consecutive league championships, earning recognition as European Player of the Year in 1984 and 1985 from the Italian newspaper Gazetto dello Sport. In June 1985 the Atlanta Hawks selected Sabonis in the fourth round (77th pick overall) of the NBA Draft. The pick was later nullified, however, because Sabonis was found to be too young to be eligible for the draft. The following spring he suffered a devastating injury, rupturing his right Achilles tendon. Nevertheless, one month later the Portland Trail Blazers selected him in the first round (24th pick overall) of the 1986 NBA Draft. The political climate didn't allow Sabonis to play in the United States at the time, but he did come to Portland in order to rehabilitate his injury with Blazers trainers. Once healthy, he returned to the Soviet Union to play three more seasons with Soviet club teams and to lead the Soviets to a triumphant showing in the 1988 Olympics. En route to the gold medal, the USSR knocked off a United States team stocked with the likes of David Robinson, Mitch Richmond, and Danny Manning. With Glasnost and Perestroika taking root in 1989, Sabonis was finally able to leave the USSR in search of a higher level of competition. But instead of signing with the Trail Blazers, he chose the Spanish League, where he spent six seasons. He played three years each with Forum Valladolid (1989-92) and Real Madrid (1992-95). Sabonis led Real Madrid to league championships in 1993 and 1994 and to the European Club Championship in 1995. During the 1994-95 regular season with Real Madrid, Sabonis averaged 22.8 points, 13.2 rebounds, 2.6 blocked shots, and 2.4 assists per game.

Source: NBA.com

© 2000-2007 basket-stats.info
[Sponsored links: namu projektai]