Arvydas Romas Sabonis (born December 19, 1964) is a Lithuanian retired
professional basketball player and businessman. Recognized as one of the best European players of his era, he won the
Euroscar Award six times, and the
Mr. Europa Award twice. He played in a variety of leagues, and spent seven seasons in the
National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States. Sabonis played the
center position and also won a gold medal at the
1988 Summer Olympics in
South Korea for the
Soviet Union,
and later earned bronze medals at the 1992 and 1996 games while playing
for Lithuania. He retired from professional basketball in 2005.
Sabonis is considered one of the best big man passers as well as one of the best overall centers in the history of the game.
Bill Walton once called Sabonis a 7'3"
Larry Bird due to his unique court vision, shooting range, rugged in-game mentality, and versatility.
On August 20, 2010, Sabonis was inducted into the
FIBA Hall of Fame in recognition of his great play in international competition.
On April 4, 2011, Sabonis was named to the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame,
and he was inducted on August 12, 2011. At that time, he was the
tallest player to ever enter the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Fame; one year later, he would be surpassed by 7'4"
Ralph Sampson. On October 24, 2011, Sabonis was voted to be the next president of the
Lithuanian Basketball Federation. He resigned from the position on October 2, 2013, but came back on October 10, 2013.
Sabonis made his professional debut in 1981 with one of the oldest basketball teams in Lithuania,
BC Žalgiris, in his hometown of Kaunas. He won three consecutive
Soviet League titles and reached the 1986
Euroleague finals with the team.
Sabonis was selected by the
Atlanta Hawks with the 77th pick of the
1985 NBA Draft.
However, the selection was voided because Sabonis was under 21 at the
time of the draft. The following spring, he suffered a devastating
Achilles' tendon injury. Nevertheless, he was selected by the
Portland Trail Blazers with the 24th pick of the
1986 NBA Draft.
Sabonis was not allowed to play in the NBA by Soviet authorities until 1989. However, he did go to
Portland to rehabilitate his injury with Blazers trainers. He also practiced with the team.
In the 1988
Summer Olympics, Sabonis led the
Soviet Union to a gold medal with a win against a
United States team that featured future NBA All-Stars
David Robinson,
Mitch Richmond and
Danny Manning in the semi-finals. The team later beat
Yugoslavia in the finals.
The 1985–1988 stretch of a heavy playing schedule and lack of rest
took a significant toll on Sabonis' future health and durability.
Various leg injuries weren't given much time to heal due to the Cold War
climate that surrounded international competition as well as
BC Žalgiris –
CSKA Moscow
games. In a 2011 interview, Sabonis expressed an opinion that overuse
by the coaches of the Soviet national program was a major contributing
factor to his first Achilles' tendon injury back in 1986.
Another key moment for his future health took place in 1988 when
Sabonis had a surgical Achilles procedure performed in Portland but was
rushed back on the floor with the USSR Olympic team before a full
recovery. The decision to include a limping Sabonis on the USSR roster
for the 1988 Olympic games was protested at the time by Portland medical
staff and was later heavily criticized.
Eventually Sabonis would develop chronic knee, ankle and groin issues
that substantially limited his mobility and explosiveness by the
mid-1990s.
In 1992, after playing with
CB Valladolid for three seasons, Sabonis joined
Real Madrid and won two
Spanish League titles and a
Euroleague
title in 1995. During the 1994–95 regular season with Real Madrid, he
averaged 22.8 points, 13.2 rebounds, 2.6 blocked shots, and 2.4 assists
per game.
After the 1994–95 European season, Sabonis and Portland contacted one
another about a move to the NBA. Before signing Sabonis, Portland's
then-general manager
Bob Whitsitt
asked the Blazers team physician to look at Sabonis' X-rays.
Illustrating the impact of Sabonis' numerous injuries, Whitsitt recalled
in a 2011 interview that when the doctor reported the results, "He said
that Arvydas could qualify for a handicapped parking spot based on the
X-ray alone."
Nevertheless, the Blazers signed Sabonis. He had a successful rookie
campaign, averaging 14.5 points on 55% shooting and 8.1 rebounds while
playing less than 24 minutes per game.
Sabonis was selected to the All-Rookie First Team and was runner-up in both
Rookie of the Year a
In the first playoff series of his NBA career, Portland lost to Utah in five games.
Sabonis averaged 16.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 1997–98, all career-highs.
During Sabonis' first leg in Portland the Blazers always made the
playoffs (part of a 21-year streak); between 1998 and 1999 the Oregon
franchise changed large parts of its roster in order to compete for the
title (after six consecutive first round losses), with center Sabonis
the only player remaining in the starting five. Kenny Anderson and Isiah
Rider were traded for Damon Stoudemire and Steve Smith. In both those
years the Blazers reached the Western Conference Finals; in 1999 they
were swept by the eventual champions, the
San Antonio Spurs,
while the next year the team (starting Sabonis, Smith, Stoudemire,
Wallace and recently added Scottie Pippen) lost to the Los Angeles
Lakers (at the beginning of the Shaq-Kobe three-peat) in 7 games.
He won the
Euroscar Award twice while playing with the Blazers. He also became a fan favorite.
The question that surrounds Sabonis' NBA career revolves around how
good he could have been had he played in the NBA during his prime.
Sabonis was nearly 31 when he joined the Blazers, by which time he had
already won multiple gold medals, suffered through numerous injuries and
had lost much of his mobility and athleticism. In Bill Simmons' "Book
of Basketball", Arvydas Sabonis the international player is idealized
while Arvydas Sabonis the Blazer is described as "lumbering up and down
the court in what looked to be concrete Nikes" and ranking "just behind
Artis Gilmore on the Moving Like a Mummy Scale."
In ESPN's David Thorpe's view, Sabonis would be the best passing big in
NBA history and possibly top 4 center overall, had he played his entire
career there.In
Clyde Drexler's
view, if Sabonis had been able to spend his prime in Portland next to
the plethora of other Trail Blazers' All Stars (Drexler,
Terry Porter,
Buck Williams and
"Cliff" Robinson),
Trail Blazers would "have had four, five or six titles. Guaranteed. He
was that good. He could pass, shoot three pointers, had a great post
game, and dominated the paint."
After the 2000–2001 NBA season, Sabonis refused to sign an extension
with Trail Blazers and retired from the NBA. In his own words, he "was
tired mentally and physically." Instead, he returned to Europe where he
signed a one-year deal at nominal salary with
Žalgiris,
expecting to join the team for most important games down the stretch.
However, he ended up missing that season in its entirety resting and
recovering from injuries. Sabonis rejoined Trail Blazers for one final
season in 2002–2003.
Sabonis came back to
Žalgiris to play his final season in 2003–2004. He led the team to the Top 16 stage of the
Euroleague that year and was named the
Regular Season MVP and the Top 16 MVP. He also became the team's president.Sabonis would officially retire in 2005.
Sabonis was awarded a silver medal at the
2013 EuroBasket tournament as the
LKF president.
Adams spent his entire playing career of 22 years as a defender at Arsenal.[1] He is considered one of the greatest Arsenal players of all time by the club's own fans [2] and was included in the Football League 100 Legends.
With Arsenal, he won four top flight division titles, uniquely
captaining a title-winning team in three different decades, three FA Cups, two Football League Cups, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and three FA Community Shields. A statue honouring Adams was unveiled at Emirates stadium on 9 December 2011, along with statues of Thierry Henry and Herbert Chapman.
When England manager Glenn Hoddle took the Captain's armband from Adams and gave it to Alan Shearer
it was a bitter pill for Adams to swallow. Speaking at a fans' forum in
2008 Adams remarked "I have some resentment over the way Glenn Hoddle
gave the captaincy to Alan Shearer instead of me but I can let that go. I
reacted positively. I disagreed with him [Hoddle] and he thought Alan
could get more penalties being a centre forward. People know my reaction
to that".
Adams continued to play for the national side, however and he finally appeared in a World Cup finals in 1998. His international swansong was England's largely unsuccessful Euro 2000
campaign. With Shearer retiring from international football after the
tournament, Adams regained the captaincy. However, within months,
England lost a World Cup qualifier to Germany in October 2000, the match being the last to be staged at Wembley Stadium before the stadium was torn down for rebuilding. That match was Adams's 60th Wembley appearance, a record. With Sven-Göran Eriksson eventually taking the helm and under increasing pressure for his place from the emerging and improving Rio Ferdinand,
Adams retired from international football before Eriksson picked his
first squad. He was the last England player to score at the old Wembley
Stadium when he scored England's second goal in a 2–0 friendly win over
Ukraine on 31 May 2000. This was also his first goal since he scored in a
friendly against Saudi Arabia in November 1988, thus making the record
for the longest gap between goals for England.
In the winter break of the 1992–93 season, Sammer signed for Borussia Dortmund. He made 17 Bundesliga appearances in the second half of the season, scoring ten times.
Kaká started his footballing career at the age of eight, when he
began playing for a local club. At the time, he also played tennis, and it was not until he moved on to São Paulo FC and signed his first professional contract with the club at the age of 15 that he chose to focus on football.
Allan Rodenkam Simonsen (born 15 December 1952) is a former Danish footballer and manager. He most prominently played for German Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach, winning the 1975 and 1979 UEFA Cups, as well as for Barcelona from Spain, winning the 1982 Cup Winners' Cup. Simonsen is the only footballer to have scored in the European Cup, UEFA Cup, and Cup Winners' Cup finals. Simonsen was named 1977 European Footballer of the Year.
He played a crucial part for the Danish national team under manager Sepp Piontek,
in Denmark's qualifying campaign for the 1984 European Championship.
Denmark led their qualifying group with a single point over second
placed England before the two teams met at England's home ground Wembley Stadium in September 1983. Simonsen scored one of the most important Danish goals ever, as he converted a penalty kick against English goalkeeper Peter Shilton.
The 1–0 win eventually secured the Danish national team qualification
for their first international tournament since the 1972 Olympic Games,
and the first European Championship participation since the 1964 tournament. It effectively ended England's hopes of qualification for the tournament. He subsequently finished third in the vote for the 1983 European Footballer of the Year award.
Weah spent fourteen years of his professional football career playing for clubs in France, Italy, and England. Arsène Wenger brought him to Europe when he signed for Monaco in 1988. Weah moved to Paris Saint Germain in 1992 where he won Ligue 1 in 1994 and became the top scorer of the UEFA Champions League 1994–95. He signed for A.C. Milan
in 1995 where he spent four very successful seasons, scoring some
spectacular goals (the most notable running the length of the field
against Verona), and won Serie A twice. He then moved to the English Premier League towards the end of his career and had spells at Chelsea and Manchester City.
Karl-Heinz "Kalle" Rummenigge (born 25 September 1955 in Lippstadt) is a German former football striker.
Rummenigge was born in Lippstadt, North Rhine-Westphalia.
With Bayern he won the European Cup in 1975 and 1976. In 1975,
he did not take part in the final of the competition, whilst in the
year thereafter a glass of brandy sufficiently prepared the nervous
Rummenigge to contribute to the defeat of AS Saint-Etienne. In the same year he became also part of the team that prevailed in the Intercontinental Cup finals against Cruzeiro EC from Belo Horizonte.
The club, then often dubbed as "FC Breitnigge", won in this period the Bundesliga title in 1980 and 1981, and the DFB-Pokal in 1982 and 1984. A renewed triumph in the European Cup was denied, when the club lost the 1982 final narrowly against Aston Villa. In the season before Rummenigge was top-scorer in this competition with 6 goals.
In 1984, aged 29, he was sold for a record fee of €5.7m to Internazionale. Despite a notable beginning, in which he helped the team to compete until the end for the 1984–85 Scudetto, Rumenigge's career in Italy was mostly marred by injury problems. At the end of his contract in 1987, Rummenigge moved on to Swiss first division club Servette FC in Geneva, where he saw his career out. In his last season, 1988–89, he had his last success, becoming top scorer in the Swiss league with 24 goals.
Rummenigge also took part in two European Championship tournaments. In the 1980 competition in Italy, West Germany defeated Belgium in the final by 2–1 and won the trophy. The 1984
tournament is engraved as one of the most unsuccessful undertakings of
the German national team. West Germany was already ousted in the group
stage.
From 1990 until 1994 Rummenigge worked as a TV co–commentator for
matches of the German national team. In autumn 1991, Bayern Munich
invited Franz Beckenbauer
and Rummenigge to return to the club as vice presidents. Rummenigge
held this position until 2002, when he was appointed Chairman of
Executive Board of the newly corporatised football department of the
club. According to the club, "in his role as chairman he is responsible
for external relations, new media, board affairs and representing the
holding company on national and international bodies." 
As a player in the 1970s and 1980s, he has been described as
"arguably the first superstar English player to attract the modern media
spotlight". He began his playing career at Scunthorpe United in 1968, before moving to Liverpool in 1971. At Liverpool, Keegan won three First Division titles, the UEFA Cup twice, the FA Cup and the European Cup. He also gained his first England cap in 1972, and moved to German club Hamburg in the summer of 1977. At Hamburg he was named European Footballer of the Year in 1978 and 1979, won the Bundesliga title in 1978–79, and reached the European Cup final in 1980. Keegan moved to Southampton that summer, and spent two seasons at the club before a transfer to Newcastle United in the English second division
in 1982. He helped Newcastle to promotion in his second season, and
retired from football in 1984, having been capped 63 times for England,
scoring 21 goals.
Manu Chao (born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao; June 21, 1961) is a Spanish/French singer who sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, Galician, and Portuguese and occasionally in other languages. Chao began his musical career in Paris, busking and playing with groups such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos, which combined a variety of languages and musical styles. With friends and his brother Antoine Chao, he founded the band Mano Negra
in 1987, achieving considerable success, particularly in Europe. He
became a solo artist after its breakup in 1995, and since then tours
regularly with his live band, Radio Bemba.
Many of Chao's lyrics talk about immigration, love, living in ghettos and drugs and often carry a left-wing message. This reflects Chao's own political leanings—he is very close to the Zapatistas and their public spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos. He has many followers among the European left, the Latin American left and the anti-globalisation and anti-free trade movements. He is also a founding member of ATTAC.[14] Punk and reggae historian Vivien Goldman commented of his work, "I was writing about Good Charlotte and The Police.
They adopted the trappings of punk. They aren’t bad groups, but the
punk aspect is more manifested by somebody like Manu Chao. He's one of
the punkiest artists out there I can think of. It's an inclusionary
spirit that is punk."
Though Chao is quite well known in Europe and Latin America, he has
not had the same success in the English-speaking world. Tours in the
United States with Mano Negra were not as successful as elsewhere and
Chao seems inclined to focus his efforts in the places where his musical
style finds its roots. Though his live performances in the U.S. are
infrequent, Chao played a handful of dates there in 2006, including a
headlining show at Lollapalooza 2006 in Chicago, IL. His final appearance on his 2006 U.S. tour was a benefit concert in the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn,
New York on August 7. He returned to that venue in the summer of 2007
for two concerts, part of the multicultural "Celebrate Brooklyn" concert
series. The crowd was treated to a nearly two-hour performance,
including two encores. Manu Chao also appeared at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland to a sellout crowd on June 23, 2007. This was a semi-spontaneous endeavour between Thievery Corporation and Manu Chao facilitated by a new-found friendship developed during Lollapalooza 2006. He was one of the headlining acts at the 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival and the Outside Lands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park. In January 2012 he was the headline act at the opening night of Sydney Festival, marking his first concert in Australia.
Arvydas Romas Sabonis (born December 19, 1964) is a Lithuanian retired professional basketball player and businessman. Recognized as one of the best European players of his era, he won the Euroscar Award six times, and the Mr. Europa Award twice. He played in a variety of leagues, and spent seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States. Sabonis played the center position and also won a gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea for the Soviet Union,
and later earned bronze medals at the 1992 and 1996 games while playing
for Lithuania. He retired from professional basketball in 2005.
The 1985–1988 stretch of a heavy playing schedule and lack of rest
took a significant toll on Sabonis' future health and durability.
Various leg injuries weren't given much time to heal due to the Cold War
climate that surrounded international competition as well as BC Žalgiris – CSKA Moscow
games. In a 2011 interview, Sabonis expressed an opinion that overuse
by the coaches of the Soviet national program was a major contributing
factor to his first Achilles' tendon injury back in 1986.
Another key moment for his future health took place in 1988 when
Sabonis had a surgical Achilles procedure performed in Portland but was
rushed back on the floor with the USSR Olympic team before a full
recovery. The decision to include a limping Sabonis on the USSR roster
for the 1988 Olympic games was protested at the time by Portland medical
staff and was later heavily criticized.
Eventually Sabonis would develop chronic knee, ankle and groin issues
that substantially limited his mobility and explosiveness by the
mid-1990s.
After the 1994–95 European season, Sabonis and Portland contacted one
another about a move to the NBA. Before signing Sabonis, Portland's
then-general manager Bob Whitsitt
asked the Blazers team physician to look at Sabonis' X-rays.
Illustrating the impact of Sabonis' numerous injuries, Whitsitt recalled
in a 2011 interview that when the doctor reported the results, "He said
that Arvydas could qualify for a handicapped parking spot based on the
X-ray alone."
Nevertheless, the Blazers signed Sabonis. He had a successful rookie
campaign, averaging 14.5 points on 55% shooting and 8.1 rebounds while
playing less than 24 minutes per game. Sabonis was selected to the All-Rookie First Team and was runner-up in both Rookie of the Year a In the first playoff series of his NBA career, Portland lost to Utah in five games.
The question that surrounds Sabonis' NBA career revolves around how
good he could have been had he played in the NBA during his prime.
Sabonis was nearly 31 when he joined the Blazers, by which time he had
already won multiple gold medals, suffered through numerous injuries and
had lost much of his mobility and athleticism. In Bill Simmons' "Book
of Basketball", Arvydas Sabonis the international player is idealized
while Arvydas Sabonis the Blazer is described as "lumbering up and down
the court in what looked to be concrete Nikes" and ranking "just behind
Artis Gilmore on the Moving Like a Mummy Scale."
In ESPN's David Thorpe's view, Sabonis would be the best passing big in
NBA history and possibly top 4 center overall, had he played his entire
career there.In Clyde Drexler's
view, if Sabonis had been able to spend his prime in Portland next to
the plethora of other Trail Blazers' All Stars (Drexler, Terry Porter, Buck Williams and "Cliff" Robinson),
Trail Blazers would "have had four, five or six titles. Guaranteed. He
was that good. He could pass, shoot three pointers, had a great post
game, and dominated the paint."