Domantas Sabonis has been selected as a replacement for the 2021 All-Stars, which is gratifying.
From a role player who averaged 6 points and 4 rebounds per game in the Thunder, to an all-around insider averaging 21 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists per game today, he has even become the league's number one screen handoff master (this season) Averaged 6.8 screen assists per game, blocking 15.9 points for teammates) and a top pick-and-roll terminator (fourth in the league in pick-and-roll points per game, second only to Vucevic, Gobert and Jokic). It's also really inspiring.
After all, even his father was an All-Star when he played in the NBA.
But... he and his father actually have different styles.
He is left-handed, and his father is right-handed; he is a high-post support and mid-post pick-and-roll man, and his style is actually more like Scola or the young Gasol.
But his father has a different style.
In the past, it was quite difficult to describe the power of Arvydas Sabonis. After all, giants in the NBA world, such as Chamberlain, Sky Hook, Big Dream and Shark, must be scoring monsters before everyone can feel it; so there are topics such as "Sabonis is the best center passer in history". , many fans grinned after hearing this: It doesn't matter if you can pass the ball, you are not a defender...
So to say how strong the Sharks are, just shoot the scoring and rebound data; Russell, the old For Walton and Sabonis, it's more difficult; if you want to cite examples, you can only say "Look at how good Divac and Gasol are", but after all, those two are not as good as the sky.
Fortunately, Jokic is now there. Looking at him, everyone can probably understand: how much a long man who can pass the ball, even if he is not willing to score, can affect the game.
Before Jokic appeared, many people believed that Arvydas Sabonis was the number one passing center in history.
In fact, just a while ago, Grant Hill also said that Jokic is like Sabonis.
Of course it’s more than that.
The following paragraph was written for a magazine almost fourteen years ago.
Arvydas Sabonis’s father—Domantas’s grandfather—Andrus Sabonis is 185 centimeters tall and is a Lithuanian tailor. As for how Mr. Andrews married his wife Ingrida, a Lithuanian beauty queen, model and film actress, that is their secret.
This modest couple had their eldest son, Arvydas Sabonis, in the winter of 1964.
When he was 13 years old, Sabonis was taught how to play basketball. At the age of 15, he joined the former Soviet Union National Youth Team.
When he was 16 years old, the Zalgiris Kaunas team, which had only won the former Soviet Union championship once in the previous 40 years, came to the door. They wanted this big man so that they could compete with Central Moscow. The Army team—the dominant team with 21 championships in four decades, nine consecutive championships from 1976 to 1984—had a less embarrassing encounter.
They created a strange—and now it seems ominous—training program for Sabonis that caused him to mature quickly and prematurely. The result is that Sabonis, who is 221 centimeters tall, has the power to smash rebounds early on.
In 1982, the 18-year-old Sabonis won the World Championship gold medal with the former Soviet Union men's basketball team. In 1985, at the age of 21, he won the European Championship.
His personal achievement is the most terrifying: from 1985 to 1987, Kaunas won three consecutive league championships. The powerful CSKA Moscow looked at this huge beast in silence.
In the 1985 European Championships, this is how Sabonis played: he could run, jump, pass, and shoot three-pointers, and he could also make such a "face-to-basket fake move, shake, break through, and then make a mid-range shot." ” — remember that was almost forty years ago, and he was 221 centimeters tall.
This big guy is as tall as a hill, but the word cumbersome has no connection with him - at least when he was young.
In Seoul in 1988, the U.S. team led by David Robinson and Danny Manning, the two No. 1 picks, and Mickey Richmond, the super scorer, found that they encountered a monster. The Soviet Union versus the United States...24-year-old Sabonis versus 23-year-old Robinson.
Robinson, wearing No. 11, found the guy opposite him to be too strange. He can jump up behind him, grab offensive rebounds and dunk right into the rim.
Likewise, on his signature swing, jumper, Sabonis is able to catch up and slap the ball down.
The Soviet Union defeated the United States, Sabonis suppressed Robinson, and the Americans failed to reach the 1988 Olympic finals. To a certain extent, it was this defeat and Sabonis that led to the subsequent Dream Team:
"It seems that it is time to send NBA players to play!"
Robinson graduated from college this year and served for two more years. In the fall after being held down by Sabonis, he played his first NBA game: against the league's king Los Angeles Lakers, he scored 23 points, 17 rebounds and 3 blocks in his first game. After that game, Magic said, "Some people are never rookies."
In his rookie season that year, Robinson averaged 24 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks per game, allowing the Spurs to improve from the previous year. 21 wins turned into 56 wins.
Think about how powerful Robinson is at this time?
What Sabonis was holding down was Robinson like this.
Prior to this, the Hawks and Trail Blazers had picked Sabonis in the draft regardless of violations and other risks. But it wasn't until 1989 that Sabonis was eligible to play abroad. The problem is that his knees and Achilles tendons have been scarred by years of unscientific heavy-duty training.
He went to Spain. First played for Real Valladolid, then Real Madrid. In his first two years at Real Madrid, Madrid became the league champion. The third year, European champion. He was elected MVP himself.
In 1995, with no challenge left in Europe, he went to the NBA.
He was 31 years old at the time and his knees were ruined. The Portland Trail Blazers team doctor said that Sabonis can apply for disability benefits based on X-rays of his knee. The Portland media joked that this big guy's head is twice as big as that of an average center, and the thick padding on his knees makes his legs twice as thick as others.
He started as a substitute. The Blazers entered the spring with a 38-22 record. With the intention of giving it a try, he was put into the starting lineup - and then what? At the end of the spring, the Blazers were 18 wins and 4 losses.
In the 1996 playoffs, in five games with the Utah Jazz, Sabonis averaged 23 points and 11 rebounds per game.
As we all know later, he played in the NBA for seven years. In the past seven years, the Trail Blazers have entered the playoffs every year. In 1999 and 2000, the Trail Blazers reached the Western Conference Finals twice, losing to the Spurs and Lakers respectively, who were the champions of the year.
The rules of the NBA were actually not suitable for him to perform: at that time, high post support was not as popular as it is today, and the NBA's 3-second defense was not conducive to his ability to display a mountain of defense. But his back-up, support, hand-offs, replacements, rebounds, blocks, and hook shots are all shocking. With a huge body size of 223 centimeters and 132 kilograms, he is outstanding enough whether it is a mountain in the penalty area or a cover wall.
But the most amazing thing is his hands.
Sabonis has a pair of hands that are almost unparalleled in the world. Those hands are so huge that he often grabs backcourt rebounds with one hand. However, these hands can deliver soft hook shots and beautiful passes. His most signature skill is this: catching the ball with his back, swinging the ball with one hand like we pinch an apple, and the next second, the ball has been passed to a strange corner on the field.
So it’s no surprise that Rasheed Wallace had the best offensive performance of his career and the highest number of shots and catches at the rim next to Sabonis.
Sabonis Jr. is the best in the NBA this season in terms of supporting high-post passes, but he is still inferior to his father in such skillful high-low post passes:
In Before Jokic came along, probably only Divac was close to a similar level.
However, even Divac himself would say humbly when talking about Sabonis:
"He was already over 30 when he arrived in the NBA, but the Sabonis I remember is , is still the giant who I competed against on the court in his twenties. He is the greatest center I have ever seen in my life, even surpassing Shaq, Ewing and Big Dream... He can do everything on the court. He is the best."
Of course Divac was exaggerating when he said this, and the reason is not surprising:
In the 1988 Olympic finals, he watched Sabonis score 20 points and 15 points. In terms of rebounds, I was defended and only scored 11 points and 3 rebounds on 3 of 11 shots...
Of course, speaking of Ewing and Damn... we can still discuss this topic.
Sabonis's NBA career data, due to playing time, era, injuries and age, are rather unspectacular at first glance.
But take a closer look, down to the turn system.
NBA career regular season statistics:
Sasha: 26 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks per 100 possessions, true shooting percentage of 57, PER of 21, per 48 Minute WS is 0.2 and BPM is 4.4.
Ewing: 31 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 4 blocks per 100 possessions, true shooting percentage of 55, PER of 21, WS per 48 minutes of 0.15, BPM of 2.9.
Big Dream: 30 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks per 100 possessions, true shooting percentage of 55, PER of 24, WS per 48 minutes of 0.18, BPM of 4.7.
Even after 30 years old, old and injured Sabonis has never been the main attacker in the Trail Blazers, but in the regular season, down to the unit time, his performance is still the same as that of the two older players. Legendary, almost.
In 2003, Sabonis returned to his roots and returned to Kaunas - and then, at the age of 40, he helped Kaunas win the Lithuanian championship and reach the EuroLeague semi-finals. At the age of 40, he won the Lithuanian League MVP, the European League regular season MVP and the Top 16 MVP.
The old Dunleavy of the Blazers at the time said this:
"Anyone who has watched Sabonis play when he was young will know that he is one of the five greatest centers of all time. Even now, he can still hit three-pointers, hook shots, and even beat opponents off the dribble. He can make his teammates play better and have a deep understanding of the game, just like Bird, Magic and Jordan did.
Coincidentally, Sabonis’s favorite teams and players are indeed the Celtics and Larry Bird respectively.
Last year, Popovich said Jokic was "the reincarnation of Bird."
The two strongest passing giants in history - Jokic and Sabonis - are more or less related to Birdela. In turn, can it explain something?
One last little detail.
Speaking of Sabonis being restricted by injuries, we Chinese fans can easily think of another one.
NBA career statistics.
Yao Ming: 32 points, 15 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks per 100 possessions, offensive efficiency 112, defensive efficiency 99, PER value 23, true shooting percentage 60, WS value 0.2 per 48 minutes, BPM value 3.2.
Sasha: 26 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks per 100 possessions, offensive efficiency 112, defensive efficiency 97, PER value 21, true shooting percentage 57, WS value per 48 minutes 0.2, BPM value 4.4.
Quite similar, right?
It can be said that Yao Ming is the better scorer, and Sao is the better coordinator and defensive anchor.
And in the FIBA ??world.
Yao Ming ranked third in scoring and rebounding in the 2004 Olympics. In the 2008 Olympics, he ranked second in scoring, third in rebounding, and third in blocks.
Sabonis was the 1988 Olympic rebounding champion, third in blocks, and won the championship with the team. In the 1992 Olympics, he ranked third in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots; in the 1996 Olympics, he ranked seventh in scoring and second in rebounding.
Those were the kings of the penalty area in their respective eras. They were all injured and carried the team forward, real giants.