1986 article exerpts....
The few Americans who have seen Sabonis play in recent years,
mostly professional scouts and college coaches, recount feats of
agility and marksmanship that sound all but superhuman. Pete Newell,
the director of player personnel for the Golden State Warriors of
the National Basketball Association, and a man widely respected for
his acute evaluations of the skills at the center position, is
lavish in his praise of Sabonis. "He could conceivably become the
greatest player in the game,' Newell says. "At seven-three, he is as
naturally gifted as any player I've ever seen, and he conducts
himself like a very athletic forward. He has tremendous hands and a
physique made to order for basketball. If he had played for an
American team last year, I'd have drafted him before Patrick Ewing.'
(The seven-foot Ewing was the first collegiate player selected in
last year's NBA draft, and so coveted were his talents that the
league instituted an unprecedented lottery for first pick in the
draft among the seven teams with the poorest records.)
Newell says, "I saw Sabonis make an unforgettable play last year in a
tournament in Hiroshima, Japan. A rebound bounced high off the rim
and over toward the corner. Sabonis went up for it way out there,
took the ball in one hand and--still up in the air, off balance--
swept the ball backhand, like a discus thrower in reverse, and hit a
teammate in stride downcourt eighty-six feet away for an easy layup.
I'd never seen a play like it.'
Guiding the American team in Spain this summer is Lute Olson, the
basketball coach at the University of Arizona. Olson has seen Sabonis
and the Soviet Nationals on a number of occasions and knows that the
American team, made up of the best available collegians, will be hard
pressed to stay with them. He says, "I saw Sabonis last year in the
finals of a tournament in Dieppe, France. His team was way ahead, and
he made three plays that to me were just unbelievable. Three times he
took defensive rebounds, led the fast break downcourt, pulled up, and
hit three-point shots.'
Bobby Knight, who
coached the victorious Olympic team in 1984, to say of him, "He may
be the best non-American player I've ever seen.'
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.' Sampson was the first player selected in the NBA draft at
the end of the 1982-1983 collegiate season.
The Atlanta selection was neither mysterious nor
sinister, according to Marty Blake, the director of scouting for the
NBA, whose office evaluates the professional potential of every
promising basketball player in the world. Blake says, "Atlanta didn't
have to see Sabonis. Would you have had to see Ewing to know he was
the best player eligible last year? Of course not. Sabonis is in the
same class as Ewing."
Bill Walton, of the Boston Celtics, the league's Most Valuable Player
in 1978, is one of the few NBA centers who have seen Sabonis
firsthand. He admires Sabonis's game, which he saw most recently at
the June, 1985, European Championship, a tournament that the Russian
team won handily. "Even though I've never actually played against the
man,' Walton says, "every time I've seen him play he's been awesome.
I don't understand why some team just doesn't give him a million
dollars and get him over here. Sabonis would be a star in the NBA
right away. I can't think of one guy in the league who reminds me of
Sabonis --he can do it all.'
http://sabonis.4t.com/site/Sabonis_Liths.html