Blazers Lose Sabonis to Spain Again

Lithuanian basketball star Arvydas Sabonis, expected to play for the Portland Trail Blazers in the National Basketball Assn. next season, signed a one-year contract extension today with Forum Filatelico of Spain.

Team officials announced the signing but declined to say how much they would pay Sabonis, who helped the Soviet Union win the Olympic gold medal in 1988.

Sabonis, a 7-foot-3 center, originally signed with the Spanish club in June, 1989. That contract was worth $1 million, but most of the money was to go to sports authorities in the Soviet Union.

Sabonis said at the time that he hoped to play in the NBA after one year in Spain.

Portland, which drafted Sabonis in 1986, holds NBA rights to the 25-year-old.

Sabonis had hoped that the less strenuous schedule in the Spanish league would help him to recover from an Achilles’ tendon injury that had bothered him since before the Olympics.

In an interview last May, Sabonis said the tendon was better.