Walt Williams on Portland years and playing with Arvydas Sabonis: "His talent level was so unreal"

Walt Williams talks about his time with the #PortlandTrailBlazers and describes them as the most talented and close-knit team he played for. He also touched upon #ArvydasSabonis and described him as a generational talent.
Full interview: • 1-ON-1 with WALT WILLIAMS
Podcast: anchor.fm/bask...
Website: www.basketball...
Instagram: / basketball.network
Facebook / basketballnetwork.net

[@stanakkerman2386]

Sabonis: 7'3" 250 lbs, very athletic, quick, and a good leaper in his prime.
Jokic: 6'11 280 lbs, slow, poor leaper.
Both great players, but Sabonis would have destroyed him in his prime. Prime Sabonis could have been an NBA MVP caliber player.

[@kingcam0775]

That's waaaay too simple of a breakdown. Underselling Jokic doesn't make what you're saying look more credible.

[@telmolicious]

Also better on D

[@sebastianliwinski222]

Sobonis was actually 280/290 pounds

[@8301TheJMan]

Walt was such an underrated player throughout his career, but especially while at Portland. Nowadays he's remembered as a pure outside shooter, but that's just not the case what so ever. Sure his outside shot was def his best attribute, but he was deceptively quick and athletic, and seeing as how deadly a shooter he was, he was great at faking the shot and then driving past the defender to the hoop and back then was still athletic enough to finish at th rim over most rotating help-defenders. And cuz of his size, he was also decent in the post. All in al - he was a much more versatile scorer thn he ever got credit for. His PPG had been creeping up towards 20 a game during his time in Sacramento and then Toronto, and though at Portland his numbers dropped considerably, it had to do entirely with the fact that the 98 and then 99 Blazers teams had one of the deepest stable of SG's and SF's in NBA history. Other than Walt, they also had Isaiah Rider, (who certainly was difficult to work with off the court, but regardless was one of the most talented and versatile scoring 2-guards in the league at the time and though he was a headcase - he was much more impactful on the court than Smitty was by the time Portland got him.to Portland than Steve Smith did). Then on top of that - they also had Jimmy Jackson, Stacy Augmon, and a young Bonzi Wells.
That 99 team was so damn stacked good to great players at every positions, not just at the wing. I mean, Sheed was, (and still is), one of the most skilled and versatile PF's in NBA history. As deadly of an outside shooter that he was, he was unstoppable in the post - to go with being a phenomenal defender and rebounder. His biggest problem, (aside for getting so many tech-fouls of course, was that he simply was never comfortable with being THE Man and was simply far too unselfish. If he had KG's or Duncan's assertiveness and willingness to step up and be that go-to scorer - demanding the ball every time down the court, then he would have been legit the best PF of all time! He had every bit as many unstoppable post moves as either Tim or Kevin, was much quicker and more athletic than Tim also a much better mid-rage and outside jump shot. Then was maybe not quite as athletic and fast and KG, but was much stronger and was a much better overall post defender. After Sheed they had Sabonis (one of the the top five Centers in the league during the late 90's, Brian Grant - who is one of the most underrated PF's in the league back then, and woulda ut up much better number while at Portland, but similar Walt - he was having to share a bunch of PT with Sheed and a young Jermaine O'neal. Then there was Damen, who was easily one of the top 3 or 4 best scoring PG's in the league at the time, )though that teams actually needed more of a pass-first floor general, due to them already having plenty of guys who can scorer. Though he became much more of a true PG while in Portland than he ever was anywhere else, they also had the extremely underrated Greg Anthony, who imo the much more of the sort of PG that that team needed, a pass-first flor general who was also a ridiculously good on-ball defender.
That team was way better than the 2000 and then 2001 teams. They traded the troubled Rider along with the highly underrated Jimmy Jackson, who had knee injuries earlier in his career which was why he wasn't nearly the elite SG that he was in Dallas , but was still a great all-around SG/SF, who was - like Rider, a much more complete and versatile player than Steve Smith at that point in each of their careers. Trading just Rider woulda been a bad trade by itself, but to give away both Rider and Jimmy, that was a travesty. Smith was never the most versatile player who was a crap defender and a very one-dimensional offensive skill-set - even back when he was in his prime a few years earlier, and by the time Portland got him he was pretty washed up, and was nothing more than a deadly outside shooter. The to trade Walt, Stace, Greg Anthony,, Cato, and the kitchen sink in order to acquire the even more washed up Pippen was a compete waste. If they had kept that team together, they without any doubt would have eventually won the tittle and would have been contenders for at least another three or so seasons. Where as, by bringing in old over-the hill guys who weren't much, (if any at all), improvements on the slue of younger players they delt away to get these dinosaurs, they pretty much doomed any and all potential longevity. Sorry for the rant, but that team was the Blazers team that i grew up with and made me become the hardcore Blazers fan that i am today, and i was devastated when i found out Portland traded away nearly half their effin team in order t get two over the hill former greats in Pippen and Smith. Watching this vid triggered the intense hatred i had, and still to this day - have towards Whitsitt for ruining a team that obviously was on the previous of becoming a major power in the western conference for a significantly longer period of time than they ended up being as a result of those idiotic trades.

[@jab1289]

@8301 TheJMan What's sad is that people think that Pippen was needed to go further, and that they didn't do anything without him. They made the WCF without him. You have a good point. Getting rid of Rider and bringing in Pip didn't help much. Whitsitt seemed to tinker way too much, like he did in 2001 when he brought in Rod Strickland.

[@8301TheJMan]

@@jab1289 So true! Thanks for taking to the time to read and then respond to that overly long spiel lol!
Rod woulda been a great fit for that team at one point in his career, he was one of the top 3 or 4 best passers of the 90's, while being a phenomenal slasher and finisher to boot, along with some decent D. That said, he was getting really old at that point and also had become a massive headcase in his own right, which was strangely something he was never known for prior to his tenure in Washington and then when he came back for his second stint at Portland. He apparently really hurt the team chemistry and comradery.
I'm convinced Dunleavy was also largely to blame, on top of Whinslet for ruining one of those teams. It's criminal that he didn't recognize just how elite of a scorer Sheed was, (especially once they traded Rider away), who every time down the court should've been fed the ball in the post! And that wasn't the only case, Dunleavy also under-utilized the shit outa Walt, Jimmy, Augmon, and eventually Antonio Daniels as well! Daniels was far and away a better PG than Rob was, and arguably even better than Damon, and while there deserved a shit-ton more pt!
I didn't mind trading Smitty for Derek Anderson though. DA was a far better all-around player and a far more complete scorer than Smith was. It's sad he was so injury prone while in Portland, because wen he was healthy, he had Portland looking like legit contenders again. But that doesn't make up for the awful trades he made, including one that i didn't mention and coulda been the worst of all of them - trading Jermaine O'Neal for an old Dale Davis!

[@CroatianFoodRecipe]

awesome!

[@user-gh3cz6eu7e]

It was his knees not achillies Walt