How good was prime Arvydas Sabonis?

[NBAfan3024]

Just a shame for everybody he wasn't in the league during his prime

[jinxed]

Has anyone broken him down in terms of his prime athletic ability? I know a lot about his skills, but not how he measured up athletically against the better centers of his era.

Could dunk from free throw line apparently. Ridiculously strong, broke backboards..

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfSvrQfUeAg[/youtube]

[RalphWiggum]

Just a shame for everybody he wasn't in the league during his prime

What's an even bigger shame is the guy may have never had a prime in the true sense of the word.

You watch old footage of him grabbing at his knees constantly at 21, never mind his Achilles tendons soon after.

In today's day and age he comes over to some prep school in the US at 16 gets the best medical care and coaching and never has a communist system that pushes him until he breaks by playing him every second they can. Then he's even better than he was which was already scary good.

Also consider how many disgusting passes he made to those middle of the road soviet players that couldn't finish them? Think about how good his passing would have been with top tier NBA players that cut to the right places and can finish. Hell the guy was almost a 7'3" Magic Johnson.

In today's NBA where you know he's yours right away and not trapped in the USSR he's probably the number pick in every draft the last 20 plus years with the exception of Lebrons year.