February 09, 2012
Robertas Javtokas, Lietuvos Rytas.
Robertas Javtokas - Lietuvos Rytas Robertas Javtokas spins around, leaves his opponent behind, slashes to the basket, jumps, catches the ball in the air and throws down an alley-oop slam. "Nice pass," yells the 23-year-old center to a Lietuvos Rytas teammate. Nice jump, too. Especially if you know that one year ago nobody could say whether the 2.11-meter Javtokas would ever walk again. It was May 1, 2002 when Lithuanian's most promising young center, already an NBA draft choice, was riding his motorcycle at around 140 kilometers per hour towards the capital of Vilnius. Approaching a side road, Javtokas started to pass a van, but the van driver did not see the motorcycle and turned left. There was no chance for Robertas to stop. Javtokas hit the van, losing control but not the bike, which crashed into a car in the opposite lane. Javtokas flew dozens of meters and landed in bushes off the road. When Javtokas regained consciousness at the hospital, his first words were: "Doctor, bandage me and I'll leave." The doctor, preparing the huge patient for a difficult operation, answered honestly, "Yes, you will, but after a year." The diagnosis was not exaggerated. Witnesses to the crash wondered if the biker could survive at all. Javtokas not only survived, but this autumn he put on a Lietuvos Rytas jersey again. Next week, as the ULEB Cup season starts, he is considered to be among a large group of young players who could grow into superstars in Europe's biggest competition. Here is the story of Robertas Javtokas.

"Before the first game, after a long break, I was so nervous," Javtokas confessed in a recent interview with ULEBcup.com. "I wanted to know if I could be as good as before on the court. Now I'm OK, although I still lack some confidence. My body forgot the game, and I need time to regain the feeling of the game."

The head coach of Lietuvos Rytas, Jonas Kazlauskas, is trying to help Javtokas recover his lost ground.

"Robertas is not the same as he was before the injury, yet," says Kazlauskas. "But I'm sure he has more than enough obstinacy to recover fully and become perfect."

Not only the coach and his teammates were happy with Javtokas's return. Thousands of Lithuanian basketball fans could not wait to see the flying center on the court again. After short career in the NCAA at the University of Arizona, Javtokas returned to his homeland in 1999 and soon became very popular. Even Lietuvos Rytas rival fans admired the young player's ability to deny gravity and perform spectacular dunks. Javtokas proved his stunning jumping abilities at the Lithuanian League All-Star Weekend in 2001, when he dunked the ball on a basket set 3.65 meters high, 60 centimeters more than the normal rim height.

A few months later Javtokas became a member of Lithuanian national team and took part in the European Championships in Turkey. The following season, the young center established himself as the main figure in the Lietuvos Rytas. That is why people in Lithuania, even the few who do not follow basketball, followed Javtokas's rebirth: three surgeries, a special plate implanted in his leg, long treatment of an injured shoulder nerve, month after month of boring, but necessary, rehabilitation exercises.

"My optimism runs in front and injury walks slowly behind," Javtokas said at the time. "But after only two months had passed following the crash, I could go on crutches and attend to myself.The doctors had said that I would be able to walk only after six months."

Optimism and unshakable will would bring Javtokas closer and to his goal: to play basketball again. His older brother Arturas, who also played for Lietuvos Rytas at that time and joined Zalgiris Kaunas this season, remembers: "Robertas would tell me: 'I'm working out more than you. I become so tired that when I come home all I can do is sleep'." Arturas Javtokas always believed that his brother would recover. Their mother, Alma Javtokiene, was not so optimistic right after the accident, but Robertas' persistence changed her mind.

"The first days, I was just happy my son was alive," the player's mother said. "But later I started looking forward. I knew Robertas was a very talented player and hoped to see him on the court soon. The man's abilities are immeasurable."

When Javtokas regained strength, he called coach Kazlauskas to apologize: "I had promised not to ride a bike, but I broke the promise," Javtokas recalls. "I thought, 'Nice day, why not take a ride on the bike?' Unfortunately, it ended terribly. It looks like a nightmare now." Doctors from Lithuania and the United States helped Javtokas end the nightmare. Lietuvos Rytas tried to find the best Lithuanian specialists to tend the injured player. The San Antonio Spurs did not forget their 2001 second-round draft pick, either. Javtokas flew to the States several times, and San Antonio doctors confirmed every time that things were going well.

Eight months after accident Javtokas started to train at the gym. "We had to slow down Robertas," remembers Kazlauskas. When Lietuvos Rytas practiced on the basketball court, Javtokas rode the bicycle or swam in the pool. After his teammates had left the court, Robertas would shoot alone. Last spring, on March 11, Javtokas went through the third and, hopefully, last surgery since the crash. Doctors in a San Antonio hospital removed a metal plate from his leg and put in special bone reinforcement which will remain forever. "The surgeons told me that without this reinforcement, I would have to give up my career," Javtokas says.

The reinforced bone is bringing some feeling of safety to the Lietuvos Rytas center. Many people, watching him on the court, cannot believe that this master of dunks and shot-blocks is the same player who was almost killed in the bike accident.

"Robertas is the soul of the team - on and off the court," says Kazlauskas. "It's difficult to overestimate his influence to our game."
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Remigijus Kazilionis, Vilnius
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