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Trialblazer
"In Lithuania, the legend says that the first word pronounced by a baby
is 'Sabonis,' not daddy or mummy but Sabonis!" Rimas Kurtinaitis, the
Lithuanian Minister of Sports and a former teammate of Portland center
Arvydas Sabonis, is only half-joking. With this kind of story, he
wants to tell us about the magnitude of craziness for basketball in his
country. A country where a man, Arvydas Sabonis, also known as Sabas,
is considered a living god. We can already hear you screaming. What?
The flat-footed guy on the Trail Blazers? The guy who couldn't check
Shaq during the playoffs? A living god? Please...
Well, we are talking about this guy, and no, we haven't been drinking
too much vodka. We are absolutely positive.
"He was my idol and he still is," says Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgausakas,
who grew up in Lithuania in awe of Sabonis. "He was the greatest
player in the world, and I just tried to copy all his moves. I
couldn't though, because he had too many."
In order to understand all the hoopla surrounding Sabonis in his
motherland, you have to understand the significance of basketball in
Lithuania. This country is the European equivalent of the state of
Indiana. More than a national passion, it's almost a religion, uniting
3.8 million citizens. Imagine this: two years ago, the newspaper
LIETUVOS RYTAS, Lithuania's version of THE NEW YORK TIMES, created a
weekly basketball magazine because they knew it would boost sales. You
want more? You already know vodka is the preferred libation in this
part of Europe. In Lithuania the clear alcohol used to be sold in a
half-liter bottle. When a 2-liter bottle was introduced to consumers,
the unofficial name came quickly: Sabas.
It's pretty difficult to know how and when the Lithuanians began their
love affair with basketball, as there are many stories on the subject.
Let's consider this one, told by former player Valdemaras Khomicius.
"Everything started in 1922, when two pilots back from a flying
training program in the USA started playing the game," Khomius says.
"Since then, basketball has been an obsession in our country. I will
even say that it is a real disease."
And when the former Soviet Union invaded the country in 1940,
basketball became the trademark of this Baltic Republic, an outlet in
the face of Russian oppression. Basketball became a political weapon.
Now that you understand some of the peculiar aspects of basketball in
Lithuania, we can go back to our main subject, Mr. Sabonis. NBA fans
have in mind a player who can't move very quickly and isn't terribly
athletic. But have you noticed the passing skills, the three-point
touch, the feel for the game that few big men possess? In his prime,
Sabonis, a native of Kaunas, used to have it all. He was almost as
powerful as Shaq, quicker than David Robinson on the fast break, and
could jump like Vince (all right, not quite). Hard to believe now, but
Sabonis was the complete package, a player who was going to
revolutionize the NBA. At the time, he was thought by some the best
player in the world.
Considering all that, it's hard for someone who knew what he used to be
like to see Sabas -- two ruptured Achilles' tendons later and pushing
36 -- playing like a robot now, but sometimes the old flavor comes back.
Case in point: this year's Western Conference Finals against the
Lakers. Game Five. Staples Center. Sabas, standing at the three-
point line, pump-faked Shaq, and as the Big Aristotle was in the air,
Sabonis attacked the baseline at full speed and threw down a nasty, one
-handed dunk that amazed fans and commentators alike.
This kind of action, only with far more speed and power, used to be the
bread and butter of Sabonis' game, a game Americans first discovered in
November, 1982. At the time, the Soviet team had just beaten a poor
man's Dream Team, led by Doc Rivers, Mitchell Wiggins and Antoine Carr,
in the finals of the World Championship. Afterward, USA Basketball
decided to invite the Soviet team to compete against some of the best
NCAA teams. Alexander Gomelski, who was then the Soviet coach, arrived
at NYC's JFK airport with a decidedly different roster than the one he'd
used in the World Championships. In fact, Gomelski decided to bring
the best young Soviet players: Sabonis, Sarunas Marciulionis (who went
on to play for the Warriors and Kings) and others. Seeing these long-
haired young kids, USA Basketball president Bill Wall was furious:
"Who are these players? I try to do business with you and you bring me
this?" he allegedly said. Confident about the talent of his team,
Gomelski reportedly bet Wall $5,000 that his young team could win at
least one game. A few weeks later, the Russian coach was all smiles,
his team having won 9 or 12.
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