Pre NBA

Once considered the best big man in the basketball world, Arvydas 
Sabonis at age 30 decided finally to test himself against the best 
competition in the world--the NBA. "This is it for me," said 
Sabonis in Madrid in May, 1995. "There's nothing left for me to 
prove in Europe or in the basketball world. Only the NBA remains." 
A 7-3, 279-pound giant, Sabonis led the Soviet national team to a 
gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. He 
also helped Lithuania to a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in 
Barcelona, and a second-place finish in the 1995 European 
Championships in Greece. In an 11-year professional career spent 
with club teams in the former Soviet Union and then in the Spanish 
League, Sabonis has led his squads to five league championships 
and has been named European Player of the Year four times by 
various publications. Born in Kaunas, Lithuania, Sabonis first 
began playing basketball at age 13. By the time he was 15 years 
old he was a member of the Soviet national junior team, which 
proved to be a mere stopover on his way to the national team. In 
1983, at age 19, he helped the Soviet national team to a bronze 
medal at the European Championships. Two years later Sabonis led 
the USSR to gold medals at both the European Championships and the 
World University Games. In 1984 Sabonis joined Zalgiris Kaunas, a 
club team in the USSR League. He proceeded to lead Zalgiris to 
three consecutive league championships, earning recognition as 
European Player of the Year in 1984 and 1985 from the Italian 
newspaper Gazetto dello Sport. In June 1985 the Atlanta Hawks 
selected Sabonis in the fourth round (77th pick overall) of the 
NBA Draft. The pick was later nullified, however, because Sabonis 
was found to be too young to be eligible for the draft. The 
following spring he suffered a devastating injury, rupturing his 
right Achilles tendon. Nevertheless, one month later the Portland 
Trail Blazers selected him in the first round (24th pick overall) 
of the 1986 NBA Draft. The political climate didn't allow 
Saonis to play in the United States at the time, but he did come 
to Portland in order to rehabilitate his injury with Blazers 
trainers. Once healthy, he returned to the Soviet Union to play 
three more seasons with Soviet club teams and to lead the Soviets 
to a triumphant showing in the 1988 Olympics. En route to the gold 
medal, the USSR knocked off a United States team stocked with the 
likes of David Robinson, Mitch Richmond, and Danny Manning. With 
Glasnost and Perestroika taking root in 1989, Sabonis was finally 
able to leave the USSR in search of a higher level of competition. 
But instead of signing with the Trail Blazers, he chose the 
Spanish League, where he spent six seasons. He played three years 
each with Forum Valladolid (1989-92) and Real Madrid (1992-95). 
Sabonis led Real Madrid to league championships in 1993 and 1994 
and to the European Club Championship in 1995. During the 1994-95 
regular season with Real Madrid, Sabonis averaged 22.8 points, 
13.2 rebounds, 2.6 blocked shots, and 2.4 assists per game.