February 09, 2012
EB American Tour '08: Lietuvos Rytas looks to make history
Euroleague Basketball American Tour '08In the last stop on the 11-day, five-game Euroleague Basketball American Tour '08, the pride of a basketball mecca's capital city, Lietuvos Rytas of Vilnius, Lithuania, visits the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, California on Tuesday night at 19:30 local time (04:30 CET on Wednesday). It will be the first game for Lietuvos Rytas either against an NBA team or in North America, and though playing halfway around the world, the visitors might not feel so alone. More than a few fans from the Lithuanian diaspora in the United States, some from as far away as Chicago, are expected at the Oakland Coliseum for Tuesday's game, as are a group coming all the way from Vilnius and surely sporting the black-and-red colors of Lietuvos Rytas every step of the way.

For a club that is barely a decade old, great ambitions have carried Lietuvos Rytas to the heights of European basketball. Since 2000, the club has lifted eight different trophies in five different national, regional and continental competitions, including an ULEB Cup crown and three Lithuanian League titles. Now, after Euroleague teams CSKA Moscow and Regal F.C. Barcelona lost the last three games of the tour by an average of five points, Lietuvos Rytas has the chance to put its name on the global basketball map. A victory on Tuesday would make it the first-ever European team to defeat an NBA opponent in the United States.

"Each coach wants his team to be the first at something," Lietuvos Rytas boss Antanas Sireika said before the team's practice Monday evening practice in Oakland. "For sure, we will miss our fans - obviously from home it's a long way to come - but we will have some Lithuanians here, and they will be loud, for sure. Anyway, our fans are always with us in our hearts."

The connections between Golden State and Lithuania make the Warriors vs. Lietuvos Rytas a natural matchup. Sireika pointed out that Lithuania's first NBA player, Sarunas Marciulonis, was a long-time Warriors players, while the son of current Golden State coach Don Nelson has been on the Lithuanian national team bench for more than 15 years. Indeed, San Francisco's signature band, The Grateful Dead, helped outfit the newly-independent Lithuanian national team for its bronze-medal showing at 1992 Olympic Games. Lithuania's other signature club, Zalgiris Kaunas, made Oakland its biggest stop on a three-game preseason U.S. tour a year ago.

"As I stand here, I am thinking about when I was young, and it was the dream of a player to be in the NBA," Sireika said. "Now, it's like a dream come true. We are very proud for our club to be here, but also for all Lithuanian basketball."

On the court, the visitors can expect to run, as Golden State under Nelson has a reputation for go-go basketball. Even though the team's last starting point guard, Baron Davis, left in free agency over the summer and the new one, Monta Ellis, is injured, Lietuvos Rytas will have to play at a high speed or control the tempo themselves. If they can do the latter, the result could be historic.

"First we have to play a good game, and of course going to be tough, playing at their place, and they're a very talented team," Lietuvos Rytas forward Marijonas Petravicius said. ""But it would mean a lot. Winning is great for confidence. You always want to win games."

Win or lose, the experience will certainly help Lietuvos Rytas prepare for the upcoming Eurocup season.

"It's exciting, obviously, just coming and getting the opportunity to play an NBA team and to bring the Lithuanian style and love of basketball," forward Matt Nielsen said Monday. "I think the Lithuanian fans will turn up as they always do, anywhere in the word. It'll be a great experience mixing our style with the NBA."
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Eurocupbasketball.com
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