The 21-year-old Lithuanian, born and raised in Chicago, only this summer stepped onto the court for the first time wearing a jersey with “Lithuania” written on it.
M. Buzelis played in one friendly match and two World Championship qualification matches. In the latter, he played 18 minutes, scored 9 points and grabbed 3.5 rebounds per game.
However, the Lithuanian national team suffered a painful defeat in Italy and complicated its chances of qualifying for the world championships, and M. Buzelis shared an ambiguous message on social media the next day: “A bird cannot fly in a cage”.
Nevertheless, after appearing on the podcast “Ball in the Family”, one of whose hosts is NBA player and his former teammate Lonzo Ball, the Lithuanian spoke about representing Lithuania only in the most beautiful words.
“Honestly, it’s the best thing because I can represent the country my family comes from, where my mom and dad played,” said the forward.
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He also briefly shared his impressions of how he adapted to European basketball.
“I went there this year, and basketball there is different, so I had to adapt. But I always find a way to get better, to learn. While I was there, I tried to make decisions even before catching the ball. It’s easier for you (addressing L. Ball – ed.) to do that, harder for me. I tried to speed up the game because everything is very compressed there, everyone presses full court on defense. It was a different, but great experience,” said M. Buzelis.
You can watch the full podcast, where M. Buzelis also talked about his NBA experiences, training with Dirk Nowitzki, and the unsuccessful NBA dunk contest, here:
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