[Episode 2] Red Nation Roundtable with Donatas Motiejunas

Props. Sabonis is a class guy and one of the best basketball players ever. It is a shame that he was not in the NBA in his prime. He might have rewritten some record books. He was that good.

I watched every single Prokom game on terrible feeds. About this time three years ago I predicted D-Mo would be an elite center in the NBA. Everyone here and in Lithuania laughed at me. Carl and his "alligator arms" gifs was hilarious. D-Mo has a great future in the NBA. He will one day be an all star center.

How are things in Lithuania these days? I hope your economy is doing well.

 

Oh come on, there were a lot of us that could see his potential - some people are just not patient enough.

DD

 

But you were not there three years ago with me and HMMMMM and some Lithuanian guys.

 

You might want to go back and check the threads about DMo and read my posts.

His potential was obvious - what I was concerned about is whether he would reach it with us, or someone else - because the team traded him for a currently better player.

I am glad that Morey recognizes how DMo's advantages are SUPER hard to find in a 7 footer.

Left handed - Quick as a cat - Great post moves in a league that doesn't have many people that play on the post.

He is just oozing with potential, the sky is the limit for him.

DD

 

My (faulty) memory is that you were not in on that 1000+ post thread three years ago. If I am wrong I apologize.

 

I'm happy DMo is finally showing his potential. I will admit, I was pretty hard on him to start the year. I remember saying that he had the talent but I didn't think it would ever "click" in his head. Well, it clicked and now the talent is there to be seen!

I think a lot of people were so frustrated with him because they could see the talent and potential there but he just couldn't string it all together. He seemed mentally weak. But now that it looks like he has climbed the mountain, it's all smooth sailing for here on.

 

I'm starting to think Dwight and James are embarrassed at what they like to indulge in. I don't think these guys order the chicken salad @ McDDies. Small food dense in calories and other junk don't do anything good. When you slow down to actually savor the content it's just nastiness... Awful stuff.

 

Damn these are fun to watch! I was really happy to hear that they're working out right after home games. That shows such a commitment to winning and all those guys will have the game fresh on their mind while they hit the weights. I cannot even imagine how much working out after games does for chemistry. Exciting times, my friends, exciting times.

 

DD was definitely on the Dmo bandwagon from the beginning. He liked him so much, the DD jinx was in full effect until now. Only when DD started criticizing him, is when Dmo starting show his greatness.

 

This is true. All of it.

DD is some sort of witch.

 

So we need to kick DD off the DMo bandwagon to keep DMo's performance level. Now we just need to figure out where DD is:

 

Where did you get that picture?

Something is fishy here...

 

LOL, great work. The next question now is, why is DD only hiring foreigners to write code?

 

Things have settled down in LT. Economy is picking up and moving steadily into right direction (despite so-so legal and tax-revenue systems, stupid and ineffective politicians and bad and corrupt officials ). We have good, profitable seaport, capital city is beautiful and booming, beer is fine and women are gorgeous And internet speed used to be fastest in the world (don't know about now).
Talks about Sabonis bring sadness to me. He never reached prime. He first tore his achilles tendon when he was 22. Those days that was it: no more running or jumping on that leg. He was very well patched up by the best micro surgeon in LT and began to play again. And tore same tendon again. Fixing up the same place for the second time is always much more complicated because there are less healthy tissue left. Later Blazers physicians used to joke that with such leg he should be on disability
Healthy Sabas was something to behold. He was an athlete (same as tennis or soccer player, or runner) who happened to be 7'4'' and play basketball. Usually the problem with very very tall guys is that they are not well coordinated. Sabonis could dance ballet, if he wanted. Another problem - heart. It takes a strong engine to run such body. No problems there either. Now everyone talks about his passing and shooting. But initially he was beast on defense. He was blocking everything in the paint and get an offensive rebound against him was mission impossible. Just imagine Andrei Kirilenko, but 6 inches taller with Mensa level basketball IQ and passing abilities of a point guard. Scary?
Vlade Divac looked fat, slow and clumsy, Mourning was short, but athletic. In 1985 National Team of USSR (for me, lithuanian, it's painful to type it) was touring USA and played against college teams. Professional sport was off the limit because of Olympic charter. So they played against Georgetown with Patrick Ewing. Ewing dunked and shattered backboard during warm-ups, Sabas answered with something like 25&12 with couple blocks and unquestionable W for USSR.
After 1988 Olympics Sabonis was given a green light to go and play in NBA. He showed his scarred leg to a head coach and said: "What I will do there with a leg like this?" As an athlete he knew that he will never be able to do things that just recently were completely ordinary to him.
So he came in 1995. Blazers finished regular season with a run of 23-4. In first four PO games against Jazz he averaged around 22&12, but in last game in Utah Blazers were crushed. It just happened that Sabas wife gave birth to their last child - daughter (after three sons), so Sabas had to toast an occasion
OK, there many sports stories, but lets go back to DMo. No look bounce passes, dribbling behind the back, faking his defenders out of their shoes - pleasure for a sports fan to watch. I hope that he will be able to refine them and polish and be consistent. He started as a lanky lefty 7 footer with good shooting touch now he is big bearded dude who can finish with both hands. And during the WC in summer I noticed that he can drive from three point line with spin moves and whatever and score or pass to an open teammate. That was something new.

 

Nice post. No doubt Sabonis was a one of a kind specimen. And in regards to pure skillset, I think DMo is similar to him (obviously not on the same level!). Big men with post-game, skyhooks and great passing (not to mention quick as gazelles) are truly so much fun.