David Blatt picks Sabonis over Jokic as a player he wanted to coach / News - Basketnews.com

David Blatt described Arvydas Sabonis as the greatest athlete he has ever seen.

Credit: The Benas Podcast Credit The Benas Podcast

David Blatt is one of the greatest coaches in European basketball history. He is now a consultant to the Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv organization, helping the Israeli team construct the roster.

Nikola Jokic

MIN:32.8PTS:21 (68.66%)REB:11.14As:8.43ST:1.29BL:0.57TO:2.57GM:7ProfileNBA2022/2023

The famous coach sat down with Boston Celtics international scout Benas Matkevicius on The Benas Podcast to talk about his journey and the advice he has for upcoming coaches.

At the end of the podcast, Blatt was asked to name a player he would have loved to coach but never did. Without much hesitation, the specialist chose a former great.

"I wish I could've coached Arvydas Sabonis," Blatt said. "If not his two very bad foot injuries, truly one of the great players of all time. We have a present-day Sabonis playing, Nikola Jokic, who is the closest thing to Sabonis, but for me, Sabonis was and will always be the greatest athlete I ever saw."

Sabonis is both FIBA and NBA Hall of Famer who is widely regarded as one of the best centers of all time and one of the biggest, if not the biggest, what-if scenarios in basketball history.

He came to the NBA being 31 years old and immediately made an impact for the Portland Trail Blazers, becoming a solid starting piece of the roster.

At the age of 40, Sabonis came back to the club where his professional career started -- Zalgiris Kaunas -- and went on to become the EuroLeague Regular Season MVP.

Full The Benas Podcast w/ David Blatt:

3 reasons Sabonis came to the NBA late:

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