May 23, 2012
Pre-draw profile: Zalgiris Kaunas
Sonny Weems - Zalgiris
Sonny Weems
Zalgiris KaunasThe road wasn’t easy, but Zalgiris Kaunas switched coaches mid-season, reeled off three wins in its final four games and punched its ticket to the Top 16 for the third season in a row in front of its faithful fans at the brand new basketball masterpiece, Zalgirio Arena. Now battle tested and with great momentum heading into the Top 16, the Lithuanian champions are not a team to be taken lightly. Zalgiris is the proud powerhouse in a basketball-mad country and a historic Euroleague club. Now a dozen years removed from Zalgiris’s lone Euroleague title, the club has repeating that achievement as its main long-term goal. Zalgiris was founded in 1944 by the best basketball players in Kaunas and within three years it had won its first Soviet title. Zalgiris became Soviet champion four other times - in 1951 and from 1985 to 1987, the latter period going down as the team’s first golden age. With legends like Arvydas Sabonis, Sergejus Jovaisa, Rimas Kurtinaitis and Valdemaras Homicius taking charge, Zalgiris reached the Saporta Cup final in 1984, but lost to Barcelona. Zalgiris did even better in 1986, making it to the Euroleague title game only to lose the crown to Cibona and Drazen Petrovic. Following independence for Lithuania in 1990, Zalgiris took the first nine Lithuanian League championships, thus creating a dynasty. In 1998, the team lifted its first-ever European trophy, the Saporta Cup, by downing Adecco Milano 82-67 in the title game behind 35 points from Saulius Stombergas. A year later, it shocked the continent by winning the Lithuanian League, the Northern European Basketball League and the 1999 Euroleague title. Moreover, it did it so with a fun-to-watch offensive style that influenced the sport heading into the new century. Players like Tyus Edney, Stombergas, Anthony Bowie, Eurelijus Zukauskas and Jiri Zidek helped Zalgiris show that up-tempo basketball could also win Euroleague titles. Zalgiris came within a shot of the Euroleague Final Four in 2004 before eventual champion Maccabi Tel Aviv won their do-or-die Top 16 finale in overtime in epic fashion. Zalgiris kept winning Lithuanian League titles from 2003 to 2005, the year in which the club was the first to win the Baltic League, too. With Sabonis backing the team as president, Zalgiris's success was extended to its junior team, which won the 2007 Nike International Junior Tournament at the Final Four in Athens. Zalgiris lifted three trophies – Baltic League, Lithuanian League and Lithuanian Cup – in 2007-08 and bounced back in 2009-10 with a good overall performance, overcoming obstacles like injuries and coaching changes. Last season a roster complete with a strong core of local players bolstered by experienced stars took the club to memorable wins in the Euroleague, a perfect regular season in the Lithuanian League and eventually finished with Baltic League, Lithuanian League and Lithuanian Cup crowns. Improving on that stellar 2010-11 season won’t be easy, but with head coach Aleksandar Trifunovic leading the way and Sonny Weems and Marko Popovic playing starring roles, all systems are go for Zalgiris to battle on through the Top 16 and to challenge for a playoff berth.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Euroleague.net
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