February 09, 2012
Zalgiris team profile
Zalgiris KaunasZalgiris Kaunas returns to the Euroleague for 2007-08 with a winning tradition and a commitment to the sport that would make any club in the world proud. Zalgiris comes off another fine season in which it clinched its 14th Lithuanian League title since the country became independent in 1991. Zalgiris stands as the standard-bearing club in basketball-mad Lithuania due to its deep tradition. In 1944, the best basketball players from Kaunas formed the club, and it took just three years for them to grab their first Soviet Union title. As proof of its staying power, Zalgiris would be Soviet League champion five times (1947, 1951, 1985, 1986 and 1987) and runner-up seven others. A new international chapter began in 1981 as Zalgiris reached the quarterfinals of the Saporta Cup. With legends Arvydas Sabonis, Rimas Kurtinaitis and Valdemaras Homicius, Zalgiris reached the European title game in 1986, only to lose the crown to Cibona and Drazen Petrovic. Following independence in 1990, Zalgiris took the first nine Lithuanian League championships home to Kaunas, creating a dynasty that extended into Europe. In 1998, the team captured its first-ever European trophy, the Saporta Cup. A year later, it shocked the continent by storming to the 1999 Euroleague title, not to mention those of the Lithuanian League and the Northern European Basketball League. Players like Tyus Edney, Saulius Stombergas, Anthony Bowie, Eurelijus Zukauskas and Jiri Zidek allowed Zalgiris to show that fun-to-watch basketball could also win Euroleague titles.
2006-07 RESULTS
Euroleague
R. Season
2-12
Lithuanian League
R. Season
15-1
Playoffs
Champion
Its next big moment came when Zalgiris, led again by Sabonis, was seconds away from the Euroleague Final Four in 2003-04 until eventual champion Maccabi Tel Aviv won their dramatic do-or-die Top 16 finale in overtime. Zalgiris also won three consecutive Lithuanian League titles between 2003 and 2005, when the club also added the first-ever Baltic League trophy. Zalgiris bounced back from an ultra-rare season without trophies in 2005-06 by downing rival L. Rytas in the Lithuanian League finals last season. Now Zalgiris is aiming for a return to the Top 16 after a one-year absence. Its experienced players will have to work hard to keep their role, since the club's talented junior team showed its stuff by rolling to the 2007 Nike International Junior Tournament crown at the Final Four in Athens. That shows Zalgiris can look at the future with a better perspective, as Sabonis is not only a living legends of European basketball, but now a team president ready to lead Zalgiris to compete against the very best in Europe. One thing is certain, that with unique playing style born of long tradition in Lithuania, Zalgiris will never be far from a return to the very top of European basketball.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Euroleague.net
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