20 NBA Hall-of-Fame careers that were cut short by injury

NBA Hall-of-Fame career cut short: Arvydas Sabonis

Nikola Jokic is breaking defenses and the minds of viewers with his pinpoint, one-handed passes that throw his teammates open and puts them in a position to score. He has an excellent case to be the best passing big man of all time. The competition for that title goes through Lithuania.

Arvydas was one of the best big men in Europe when he was drafted at the age of 21 by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1986. Sabonis suffered a torn Achilles that same year and went to Portland to rehab the injury, although he wouldn’t get to suit up for them. Soviet authorities prevented Sabonis from playing in the US and he instead continued to play overseas, winning countless individual honors and awards while driving his teams to multiple championships in both domestic leagues and the EuroLeague.

By the time Sabonis made it to the NBA nine years later, he had suffered a number of injuries; Portland’s then-general manager Bib Whitsett recalled later that the doctors told him Sabonis would qualify for a handicapped parking spot based on his X-rays alone.

That didn’t stop Sabonis from playing extremely well as a 31-year-old rookie, and he would go on to play seven seasons with the Blazers. He was a core member of the 2000 Portland team that just barely missed out on the NBA Finals in a classic seven-game series with the Kobe-Shaq Lakers.

The Sabonis who dominated international basketball in his youth would have been devastating in the NBA, but the one who entered in his fourth decade was barely mobile after suffering so many injuries. He was still 7-foot-3 and incredibly skilled, but the lack of athleticism and mobility turned him from a surefire All-NBA player into one who never made an All-Star team. Cut short by injuries and the Soviet authorities, what could Sabonis’ career have looked like?