UcanUwill wrote:KokoKaizer wrote:UcanUwill wrote:
Yeah, but thats way after AS prime.
Exactly
There is one argument against SAbonis not being as great as his legend, And i said it before, but I want to hear what you think. When 40 year old sabonis returned to Zalgiris, at the time he was NBA role player, but he was still super dominant in the euroleague, super dominant. So, was he really that good in his prime, or inferior euros were just terribly matched up against him from the very beginning? You know what I mean?
That said, Sabonis skills were otherworldy too. He had probably the best hands the game has ever seen, amazing touch, coordination and obviously skill. in early 90's he suffered injury and doctors diagnosed that he will never play again at pro level. That was before he joined NBA, so just to think that he not only managed to return, join the NBA and still be borderline dominant center with zero athleticism left in him is insane.
I am just not sure how much better he was in his prime, he was obviously athletic when he was young, but he was injury prone from very beginning. If he was healthy, he probably would have been the player the legends suggests he was, but I am not sure reality as it is, is a match.
AS' NBA tenure is actually incredibly underrated and would get more attention today where analytics are understood. He was still *incredibly impactful*, even his last year in the NBA...far beyond a "role player."
20.5 PER, .196 WS/48, 4.1 BPM, 1.9 VORP, 113 ORtg, 97 DRtg.
Those are all-star numbers/impact.
"
