„I realized that this would probably mean the end of my career in the national team,“ D. Motiejūnas was still considering half a year ago in an interview on the „EURO Insiders“ podcast.
The Kaunas native, who will celebrate his 36th birthday in a month, last wore the national team jersey two years ago during the unsuccessful and scandalous Olympic qualifiers in Puerto Rico.
A few weeks after it ended, the spark of the scandal was ignited by Andrius Tapinas’ post on Facebook, where he claimed to have learned from a „reliable source“ about the national team players’ partying that even led to a broken TV.
As time showed, that „reliable source“ was D. Motiejūnas himself – the tall player admitted this in several interviews in recent years, justifying his actions by saying he „wanted to send a signal“ about the lack of discipline in the national team.
But the reactions to D-Mo’s actions were mixed.
„Everyone knows which player spilled everything. I think his career in the national team is over. If it were in my time, I would never play with him in the national team again,“ Linas Kleiza said two years ago on the 15min show PIKENROLAS, at that time not yet working as the national team manager.
However, in recent months, the turmoil in the Lithuanian national team led to D. Motiejūnas’ phone ringing again with an invitation to the national team.
Jonas Valančiūnas, Matas Buzelis, Kasparas Jakučionis, Ignas Brazdeikis, Ignas Sargiūnas, and several other prominent Lithuanian basketball figures refused to help the team during the crucial World Cup window, so L. Kleiza and R. Kurtinaitis had to look for the long-unused phone number and invite D. Motiejūnas, who has not played since March 22 when he was dropped from Belgrade’s „Crvena zvezda“ plans.
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He, accompanied by longtime personal trainer Virginijus Mikalauskas, arrived at the „Vytautas Mineral SPA“ hotel in Birštonas and joined a dozen other national team candidates with whom he will start preparing for the World Cup qualifiers window at the end of August.
- Kristupas Žemaitis (Klaipėda „Neptūnas“)
- Augustas Marčiulionis (Vilnius „Rytas“)
- Matas Jogėla (Vilnius „Rytas“)
- Paulius Valinskas (Utena „Juventus“)
- Laurynas Beliauskas (without club)
- Karolis Lukošiūnas („Šiauliai“)
- Gytis Radzevičius (Vilnius „Rytas“)
- Justas Furmanavičius (Utena „Juventus“)
- Osvaldas Olisevičius (without club)
- Regimantas Miniotas (Pesaro „Victoria Libertas“)
- Mindaugas Kačinas (Sopot „Trefl“)
- Ąžuolas Tubelis (Kaunas „Žalgiris“)
- Donatas Motiejūnas (without club)
- Marekas Blaževičius (Kaunas „Žalgiris“)
However, unlike other national team members, including coach R. Kurtinaitis and manager L. Kleiza, D. Motiejūnas refused to communicate with the media during the designated time on Monday afternoon.
„We came to work, not to talk,“ the veteran responded to a 15min journalist’s inquiry.
However, when asked if he intended to speak with the media later, after the start of control and official games, D-Mo confirmed that he would not.
„I will definitely talk after the games,“ the center replied.
D. Motiejūnas and the Lithuanian national team will spend the next 10 days preparing, with their first test on August 20, when they will play a friendly match against Estonia. Later, the Lithuanians are expected to face prestigious teams from the University of Arizona and the University of Michigan, with friendly matches planned against the Lithuanian reserve team, and at the end of August, they will enter the crucial World Cup qualifying battles.
The Lithuanian national team, which has won only three out of six games, will face Turkey away on August 28 and will try to beat Bosnia and Herzegovina at home on August 31. To keep realistic chances of qualifying for the World Cup, the Lithuanians must win at least four of the remaining six games, and most likely will need to achieve five victories against the teams of Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.
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The other two qualifying windows will be held in November and February-March.
