AFP-IOP/AFP through Getty Pictures
Stats: 18.6 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 2.2 apg, 52.8 FG% in 22 video games
Olympic accolades: One gold medal (1988) and two bronze medals (1992 and 1996).
There was a time when the US would dominate Olympic basketball with faculty gamers. Within the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Arvydas Sabonis modified that.
The 7-foot-3 middle gained gold with the Soviet Union in that match after which, extra meaningfully for him, additionally bought two bronze medals with Lithuania. The 1992 squad produced some nice tales, together with this one documented by Grantland a few years in the past.
Sabonis and his teammates ventured again to the Olympic dormitory, the place Sabonis challenged fellow Olympians in arm wrestling for photographs. One after the other, wrestlers and shot putters amongst them, Sabonis beat them. By the point of the award ceremony, three Lithuanians didn’t make it to the rostrum. Sabonis was one in all them. “I knew how they used to roll,” stated Chris Mullin, a part of the US’ Dream Crew. “I feel they got here out with their tie-dye on. They did what the Deadheads do. They bought loosened up. Made use of their free time.” Sabonis was positioned a few days later in one of many girls’s Olympic dormitories.
Even together with his potential as a participant diminished as a consequence of accidents, Sabonis was tremendous dominant on the FIBA stage.
