Sabonis is his own harshest critic
They tell Domantas Sabonis to relax. They tell him not to stress.
The Thunder rookie has spent his life in basketball, and players in the twilight years of their careers tell him all the time that what’s most important is to live in the moment. Not to worry so much. And so he tries it. “Kind of,” Sabonis said. “It’s hard.”
It’s not that the 20-year-old son of Hall of Famer Arvydas Sabonis can’t enjoy the game. He loves it. He chose it, he will tell you, with minimal prodding from his famous father.
It’s just that Sabonis’ idea of a good time might not look much fun.
At Gonzaga, where he played two collegiate seasons, he’d routinely spend his late nights in the gym, shooting jumpers while a student manager chased rebounds. His priority in choosing an Oklahoma City apartment, he told Zags assistant Tommy Lloyd, was proximity to the Thunder’s practice facility, so he could stop by late for extra court time.
“I try to have fun, but improving is fun for me,” Sabonis said. “Being in the gym, playing with the basketball and getting on the court with the guys, that’s fun for me. I might seem serious, but that’s because I care. I want to win. I want to get better.”
Sometimes he might want it too much.
“Maybe to a fault he can really be critical, and I do think that any player needs to be self-critical to a certain extent, because I think when you start to evaluate yourself, you can find ways to get better,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I think there’s a balance between beating yourself up and getting down on yourself and evaluating yourself.”
Sabonis can tightrope that line.
He’s always been that way, he said. Ask him if he’s harder on himself than his father was on him, and Sabonis laughs.
“Oh yes,” he said. “He’s not that hard. He could be harder. I think he doesn’t want to get in my way. If he sees something that will trouble me, if I have a bad habit, he’ll tell me strictly. Other than that he just wants me to have fun and enjoy the game like he did.”
Arvydas offered pointers — especially as Domantas grew older and joined the Lithuanian national team — but in his son’s younger years, he kept his distance.
If the younger Sabonis needed harsher criticism, he could give it to himself.
He came to Gonzaga with “a real man’s strength,” Lloyd said, but without much of an outside shot and little ability to put the ball on the floor and drive, and he honed both skills in his two seasons in Spokane, Wash.
When he had the inevitable struggles that came with expanding his game, Sabonis could “get down on himself,” Lloyd said. But the 6-foot-11, 240-pound forward has a knack for keeping criticism — internal and otherwise — from turning into self-doubt.
“You can coach him,” Lloyd said. “You can get after him. You can get right to the point and be very direct and challenge him, and he loves it.”
Since his arrival in Oklahoma City, Sabonis has made an impression on Donovan, who calls him “tough,” “physical” and “very cerebral.”
“You’re not coming in here worrying about his effort, his energy, his toughness and his physicality,” Donovan said. “He’s bringing those things in there.”
Center Steven Adams said Sabonis “doesn’t shy away from contact.”
“That’s what’s brilliant,” Adams said. “It’s hard to find that in the young fellas. He’s good there and then he also can shoot the outside ball. He’s going to be good, mate.”
That will take time. There’s a natural adjustment period for any rookie. The trick for Sabonis is not to get too down while he’s catching up. But he shrugs off the suggestion that perhaps he’s too hard on himself when things don’t happen right away.
“Maybe, I guess,” Sabonis said. “A lot of people tell me that, but I just want to get better.”