[Murphy3]

Originally Posted by Thespiralgoeson

I've looked and looked for footage of Sabonis in his prime, and there's only a precious few minutes on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06usV6451ik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DabiGsl168

You can see flashes of his passing skills, and you can see that he's really quick and agile for a guy that huge. Still, I'd give anything to actually see a real sample of that guy at his peak. Everyone who ever saw him or played against him said he was the greatest they'd ever seen. Bill Walton said he was a 7 ft 3 Larry Bird.

"What if" indeed. For my money, prime Sabonis is one of the two greatest "what ifs" in NBA history- the other one being Len Bias.

I haven't been to nearly as many NBA games as some, but I've been to my share, and I take a little bit of pride in the list of great players that I've seen play in person at least once. One of my earliest Mavs games was a playoff game against the Blazers in '03. He retired for good after that series, so I was damn lucky to see him play at least once, even if he was only a shell of himself by then. Incidentally, that game also allowed me to cross Scottie Pippen's name off my list.

Both Sabonis and Bias were first round picks the same year... Drazen Petrovic and Roy Tarpley were also in the draft..