ALK president Mindaugas Balčiūnas promised the public to present solutions by July 24 that will put our national team back on the right track.
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The Lithuanian national team, which suffered a painful blow in Bologna just over two weeks ago, found itself on the brink of an abyss, missing the departing World Championship train, and head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis’s seat heated up to red hot.
Although M. Balčiūnas publicly communicates that the decision about his future with the national team will be made by R. Kurtinaitis himself, intensive work is underway behind the scenes to find a new general.
As reported by the 15min portal, the heads of “Lithuanian basketball” have already heard at least two “no”s from Dainius Adomaitis and Darius Songaila.
However, ALK leaders are not inclined to give up on the latter specialist, sources from 15min report.
A meeting is planned these days to discuss both the U20 national team’s results at the European Championships (9th place) and the 48-year-old D. Songaila’s possibilities to take on work with the national team.
According to 15min, D. Songaila motivated his first “no” by wanting to focus on club work and playing in the European Cup tournament, which “Šiauliai” returned to after a 16-year break.
D. Songaila began his head coaching career a year ago and successfully debuted at the helm of the “Šiauliai” team.
The Sun City team finished fourth in the regular season of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) last season but hit a wall against Panevėžys “Lietkabelis” in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, leading the U20 team last summer in Greece, he won the silver medal at the European Championships.
D. Songaila played in the NBA for eight years and then spent another four seasons in Europe before finally ending his career in 2015.
As a player, he won the European Championship title in 2003, the bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games, and the bronze medal of the Old Continent in 2007.
He worked for three years on Šarūnas Jasikevičius’s staff at Kaunas “Žalgiris,” later spent four years in the “San Antonio Spurs” organization under the legendary Gregg Popovich, and assisted Kazys Maksvytis both in the national team and the Turkish club Manisa BBSK.
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