He is a figure from a reel of grainy documentary footage spliced
into a modern highlight tape. While other players gyrate and jam
around him, Trail Blazers center Arvydas Sabonis lumbers down
the floor to unleash a classic hook shot or a feathery finger
roll. At those moments he seems to be superimposed on the game,
as if by some technological trick, like Fred Astaire dancing
with a vacuum cleaner in that commercial.
The 7'3", 292-pound Sabonis seems even more anachronistic when
he delivers his pinpoint assists to reckless young talents such
as Isaiah Rider and Rasheed Wallace, who don't appreciate that
they have as their teammate one of the most gifted players in
history. "Arvydas and [Bill] Walton are the two best passing big
men ever," says Portland coach Mike Dunleavy. "No one else is
close."
Despite his chronically ailing knees, Sabonis has found clever
ways to take his game to a higher level in his third NBA season.
(John W. McDonough)
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Despite his ailing knees and back and the chronic pain in his
right heel, Sabonis, 33, is enjoying the best stretch of his
three-year NBA career. At week's end he had achieved
double-doubles in seven of his last 10 games, raising his
averages for the season to 16.4 points and 10.2 boards in 32.4
minutes a night (up from 25.5 in 1996-97). He had hit 81.6% of
his free throws, connected on 26.9% of his three-pointers and
provided at least one moment of delicious creativity each night
that sent fans rocketing out of their seats. Against the Knicks
on March 9 at Madison Square Garden, his breathtaking move was a
no-look behind-the-head lob to the startled 19-year-old Jermaine
O'Neal, who would have had an easy layup if he hadn't dropped
the pass.
Sabonis has grown accustomed to such misplays, just as he has
come to expect one of the Blazers' upstarts to wave him off when
he is entrenched in the post, despite the advantages in size,
skill and savvy he usually has there. In a March 17 game against
the Cavaliers, Sabonis uncharacteristically barked at his
teammates for not feeding him the ball. Afterward Rider
haughtily said, "He gets enough touches."
Portland's new point guard, Damon Stoudamire, disagrees. "We
should utilize him on every play," he says of Sabonis. "The guy
is an unbelievable weapon."
Sabonis developed his no-look passes and his shooting touch on
the courts of Kaunas, Lithuania. He loved to play guard, but
when he was nine years old—and almost 6 feet tall—his coach
sent him down to the blocks. "The reason I love to pass," he
says, "is I know the feeling of waiting and waiting for the ball
and no one giving it to you."
The Blazers drafted Sabonis in 1986, but nine years later, when
he finally went to Portland, the nucleus of the team with which
he was supposed to win a title—Clyde Drexler, Jerome Kersey and
Terry Porter—was gone. In its place have come a succession of
youngsters whose up-and-down performances have disappointed
Sabonis. "I think, sometimes, when these young players win the
money, they have what they need, so they no longer play like
they could," he says. "I've always loved to play, whether I was
getting a lot of money or not."
Sabonis will exercise the escape clause in his contract this
summer and become a free agent. Portland is expected to double
his $3.1 million salary, and he would like to play there for
three more years. Yet the pain in his heel is constant, and it
will one day force him to call it quits. "When I see the ball in
the air," Sabonis says, "sometimes in my mind I think I can
still jump up and grab it."
Issue date: March 30, 1998
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