Courting A Big Red

That's good, because the first few days the Blazers coaches worked with him on drills, negotiating the language gap was like crossing a muddy field in snowshoes. On the first day Schalow was trying to get Sabonis to take a pass with his back to the basket, make a little juke left, then go hard to the basket the other way for a layin. But Sabonis kept pulling up for 12-foot jumpers. "Go to the hole, son!" Schalow kept saying, but Sabonis didn't understand and Viktus couldn't translate. When Sabonis finally got the message, he took one step and jammed it in with enough force to be felt in Taco-ma. Since then the Blazers have given the Soviets a 50-word list of common NBA nomenclature. "Either he's got to learn English or we've got to learn Lithuanian." says Schalow.

No help at all is Sabonis's Lithuanian trainer, Alexandras Kosauskas, who doesn't speak English either and who was sent in last week, perhaps in part as a frivolity-stopper and in part to learn what the Blazers' doctors were doing right. For in one month under Cook, Sabonis had made significant progress.

Cook has had some hard-luck feet before—those of Bill Walton (who sued Cook for malpractice, and later dropped the case) and Sam Bowie (who has suffered two stress fractures in four seasons as a Blazer)—and now come the size-16's of the foreigner. Sabonis has thus far improved his ankle flexibility by 15 degrees, but he has still got 25 degrees to go before he can even begin to think about playing competitively. John Thompson may not have to see Sabonis wearing Soviet red in the Olympics. Democracy may be safe after all.

"I think it'll be three to six months before he's ready," says Cook. The Olympics begin Sept. 17. The Blazers open camp in early October. In a perfect Blazer world, Bowie gets healthy, Sabonis gets healthy, Sabonis gets the go-ahead from Moscow and Portland starts a front line of 7'1" Bowie, 7-foot Kevin Duckworth and Sabonis. Now that would be an Iron Curtain. Patriots like John Thompson would get to see if Sabonis can hold his own against the best big men in the American game. Like Patrick Ewing of Jamaica and Akeem Olajuwon of Nigeria.