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Sabonis in the NBA

Arvydas Sabonis is named as one of the NBA’s best European centers to ever play basketball. The former Portland Trailblazer was spectacular, no doubt about it. He muscled his opponents down in the paint. Either Sabonis was throwing some elbows and not getting caught, or taking the ball and using his hook shot move. Sabonis is seven foot three from the beautiful country Lithuania. He was signed by the Portland Trailblazers, and retired as a Portland Trailblazer. Arvydas played from 1995 to 2003. The 8 years became limited to him because he had some knee problems causing him to wear knee braces every game and practice. A solid player, everyone loved him, coaches, players, fans, boosters, everyone enjoyed all the time and commitment he put in at Portland. Sabonis had a total amount of 5,629 career points scored. The Lithuanian center averaged about 12 points a game which is pretty dang good for the Lithuanian center. He also had a total number of 378 rebounds, including offensive and defensive rebounds. Sabonis played for the Lithuania Olympic team when he was able to. Either Sabonis would throw it down with some authority, or he would just easily dish the ball right back out to the point guards and they would just knock down the 3 point shot all day, giving Arvydas Sabonis the assists. Sabonis’s rookie season with the Trailblazers, he averaged 14 points a game, and by year 1998, he was up to 16 points a game but as his knees began to worsen, he steadily declined to 12 points per game, which is still decent. I wouldn’t be surprised if Arvydas goes into coaching in Lithuania. He had a very successful career and would do well. Best wishes to Arvydas Sabonis.

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Dirk Nowitzki is one of the NBA leagues most dominant power forwards. Dirk is probably the hardest working player in the league and has the passion for the game. Nowitzki is from Europe, born and raised around the game of basketball. He worked on his shot every single day of the week, before school and after until it was time to go inside. When he was little, that was all he watched on TV. He even had a poster on the wall of his room when he was younger of Scotty Pippin, Michael Jordan’s teammate for the Chicago Bulls. He practiced all the time and it finally paid off. The European was drafted when he was about 20 years of age. Did you know that Dirk Nowitzki was the first European to win the MVP trophy in NBA history? Dirk was ahead of the Suns point guard, Steve Nash for the MVP voting. He led with 1,138 total points. The season when Dirk won the MVP trophy, he was still very upset because he was not a part of the NBA playoffs due to his team not qualifying that year.

Dirk was born in Wurzburg in Europe. He is 7 foot tall and can shoot from inside the paint, to outside, to mids, and he can THROW it down HARD! Dirk is known for his sweet turnaround jumper which is almost impossible to stop and is hard to guard against. Dirk has placed in the Olympics for many years and has led them to successful finishes. He was also named the EuroBasket MVP in 2005 and led Europe to a 2nd place finish in the Olympics. In 2006, he was voted and named the Interbasket International Europe player of the year and has made the All-First team in Europe. Nowitzki has had a very successful NBA season for the Dallas Mavericks and hopefully does not get traded soon as he hopes to have many more successful seasons before he retires. Dirks 2008 NBA stats were the following. He averages 26.8 points a game, 12 rebounds a game, 4 assists. He has been playing for 10 years, and might last to 15 before he calls it quits. Good luck to #41 Dallas Maverick and European star, Dirk Nowtizki. Europe should be proud to have a son like Dirk Nowtizki.

Posted under Sport