Jun
22
Video: Come For Joel Freeland, Stay For Arvydas Sabonis
By caseyholdahl Posted in: arvydassabonis
Neil Olshey and probably a few members of the Trail Blazers' front office will be in Houston this weekend to watch Joel Freeland practice with the Great Britain national team as they prepare for a
friendly against the Lithuanian national team on Saturday. You would suspect the team and Freeland will try to feel out whether it makes sense for the 30th pick in the 2006 Draft to make his NBA debut next season.
But while Olshey is in Houston to scout a big man whose rights the Trail Blazers currently own, maybe another big man who is already a franchise legend will also catch his eye as the team looks to fill a gaping hole at the center position. Arvydas Sabonis,
president of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation,
Hall of Famer and beloved
Trail Blazers alumnus, is in Houston with the Lithuanian team for the friendly against Great Britain, and
as you can see in the video, Sabonis is on the court playing post defense, throwing no-look pass after no-look pass and generally making life difficult for some young fellow who has the unfortunate task of trying to box out that mountain of a man.
Hopefully Sabonis got cleared by his doctor to participate in such activity. Sabonis said during
our live chat interview last year (the highlight of my career, by the way) that he still plays with friends a couple times a week, but that was before he
suffered a heart attack in October of 2011, after which he said, "The doctors told me, 'You can't smoke, you can't drink, you can't play basketball.' So of the things I like, only sex is left."
Looks like Sabas can add basketball back to that list.
(
Another huge thanks to Lithuania Basketball for the tip. Add them to your bookmarks folks.)