Rasheed Wallace played with and against the best of the NBA over a 16-season career, but the UNC product has high praises for his former teammate Arvydas Sabonis. For Wallace, the Lithuanian was "hands down" the best passing big he's played with, probably even better than Nikola Jokic.
The best passing big men
In a recent episode of Sheed and Tyler podcast, the former four-time NBA All-Star revealed why he believes Sabonis deserves such high acclaim.
I will probably say that of any big, any other big I played with, he's the best passer. Hands down. I played with some good bigs, but no. Man, I don't know how he got some of the passes in there, especially when he's a little bit younger… he was fine, you cuz.
Sabonis is a monster. As far as a good passing big? He's probably tops. You know, Joker reminds me of him with some of the passes, but man, Sabonis, cuz.
Wallace played with Kevin Garnett in Boston and Chris Webber in Washington, two of that era's best passing big men. However, even with Sabonis being busted after all his injuries , the European legend was still on another level with his vision.
Of course, that did not show up in his career averages. Sabonis averaged just 2.1 assists per game, but sometimes, the numbers don't tell the whole story. Wallace was apparently talking about quality rather than quantity. It's also worth noting that Sabas played in an era where big men don't have the freedom they enjoy today. It's always a big "What if," but if a prime and healthy Arvydas Sabonis played today, he'd be a 7-foot-3 Nikola Jokic .
Sabonis was a literal monster
While Wallace reiterated that his former teammate was a monster passer, he was also a "monster" in the literal sense of the word.
"That's the first time I've seen a giant," Bonzi Wells recalled laying his eyes on Sabonis. "If you'd run into him, bro, I'm talking about big hands-- big, heavy hands. I swear, when 'Sheed threw that towel at his face, I'm worried for my boy. I'm over here like, 'Hey man, Sheed, I know you're a bad MF and all, I know you're bad, but…' I think he'd take five straight hardest punches to the face and just laugh.
Wells played with Sheed and Sabonis for three seasons in Portland. He was talking about the time when Arvydas accidentally smacked Wallace across the face after a failed flop, chipping his tooth. Sheed was so frustrated he threw a towel at his teammate and admittedly wanted to punch him . However, as Bonzi noted, that wouldn't have gone well for Sheed fighting against a tree of a man.
That said, both Wells and Wallace clearly appreciated Sabas, not only as a player but as a person. After all, they wouldn't have given the legend his flowers if they didn't.
Related: Arvydas Sabonis on why his children were the reason he joined the NBA: "I had to do it"
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