Sabonis a Trail Blazer in multiple ways to Yao

Sabonis a Trail Blazer in multiple ways to Yao
By JOHN P. LOPEZ
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
Rockets center Yao Ming and Portland Trail Blazers center Arvydas Sabonis breathe the same air.

Which is to say, rare. And foreign to the rest of us.

It's the air way up in the NBA clouds, where basketball giants past and future come to share thoughts and cast knowing glances, even if they don't understand a single word the other is saying.

Sabonis is the 37-year-old Lithuanian wonder who Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich said in his prime -- before devastating knee injuries -- was one of the best players ever to play the game. Yao, of course, is the Chinese superstar with a similar pedigree, but still so much to prove.

Could any of the rest of us really relate to the remarkable paths these two giants took to Compaq Center on Tuesday night?

The political red tape. The hours spent watching months-old tapes of NBA games, dreaming, wondering. The long sessions plying talents against inferior competition?

Could any of us ever know what it's like to stand so tall and feel so small, unable to step in and do in the NBA what seemed so easy in another place and another time?

Could any of us relate to the pressure, the skewed learning curve because of a language barrier and so many eyes analyzing our every move on and off the court?

Could any of us understand what it must feel like to finally make it to the NBA only to bend our knees up under out chins and sit on the bench?

Could any of us ever comprehend the sore knees, the achy joints, of a 7-3 (Sabonis') or 7-5 (Yao's) frame trudging up and down the court, day after day and night after night?

Yao can. Sabonis can. Few others could, ever.

These two giants, one past, one future, can see eye-to-eye on too many things to count. And when they finally saw eye-to-eye on the court Tuesday night, it was significant if only because Yao saw up close and personal that his struggles and interminably long learning and waiting period is not without precedent.

Yao needed this lesson as much as he has needed any NBA lesson in his brief career.

"He is a good player," Sabonis said of Yao. "But good players need time to learn. He needs to be here to learn against the best players in the world."

Sabonis, just weeks from his 38th birthday, was on the floor in the game-deciding moments of Tuesday's 86-83 Rockets victory. Yao was not.

Sabonis made a huge difference for the Blazers even in the losing effort, finishing with 12 points, five rebounds and one assist. Yao did not, playing just 15 minutes despite starting center Kelvin Cato's absence to attend a funeral.

Yao showed flashes of a brilliant future nonetheless, managing seven points, four rebounds and two assists. But Jason Collier started in Cato's place, not Yao. And when the Rockets made their decisive push to open the second half, it was Juaquin Hawkins replacing Collier, not Yao.

This is how it has to be. Sabonis showed guile and veteran experience in the few possessions the two giants faced off.

He scored early on a hook shot over Yao, outmaneuvered him for two second-quarter rebounds, scooped a fourth-quarter shot over Yao, tipped a loose ball to a teammate from out of Yao's hands and also drew a foul from the kid.

"I've played against some players bigger than Sabonis," Yao said, "but the level of play ... I've never played against anyone like him."

Throughout his young life, Yao has idolized and emulated two players more than any others. Former Rockets great Hakeem Olajuwon was one. Sabonis was the other.

"Gold will always shine," Yao said. "That's how I'd like to describe Sabonis."

Most current NBA fans don't know the level at which Sabonis played as a 20-something international star, but by all accounts he was the best big man in the world of the time. The passing and shooting skills now on display were there, but so was an athleticism long gone and speed to run the floor.

Sabonis also was drafted as a 20-year-old in 1985, like Yao, but league rules disallowed the Atlanta draft pick because of his youth. A year later when Sabonis was outplaying even American big men in international play, the Blazers drafted him, but for political reasons Sabonis did not don an NBA uniform until the 1995-96 season, at age 31.

Yet even then, Sabonis did not become a starter in the NBA until the final 21 games of the season. He had to sit, watch, sustain the pressure from his homeland and in many ways learn the game all over again. Like Yao.

For Yao, whose minutes have been few thus far, the lesson is clear in how NBA speed and talent is an adjustment no matter size and ability on the international level.

Another Sabonis accomplishment from which Yao might draw: Over those final 21 games as a starter, Sabonis averaged 17.6 points and 10.7 rebounds.

"He is going to be a player just like that," Tomjanovich said of Yao. " ... It's going to take just getting used to the NBA and really the personnel."

Yao has a long way to go, but one thing he knows. It can be done. It has been done by Sabonis, probably the only player in the world who knows what Yao is now experiencing.

 

37-year-old Sabonis

sigh.