It has been a little over a month since the last episode, but a lot has happened during this time.
Read more Incredible – Kanye West plans to perform in Russia
“We were sitting here a month ago, I remember, we spoke quite positively then, but a lot has happened since,” began Jonas Lekšas. “I can remind everyone of the chronology – first, Lithuania lost in Bologna and advanced to the second stage with three wins and three losses. Then Kurtinaitis says we complicated the situation a bit, Balčiūnas says it wouldn’t be a tragedy not to qualify for the World Championship, recalling the 2002 story and how the next year – 2003 – Lithuania won the European Championship gold.
Then Kurtinaitis and Pačėsas submit their resignation letters, Balčiūnas talks with Songaila, Masiulis, Adomaitis, Žibėnas. The decision was made not to accept Kurtinaitis’s resignation and to express full confidence in Kurtinaitis, who ultimately stayed with the national team.”
Jonas Mačiulis viewed the situation much more critically.
The former national team forward emphasized not only the sporting results but also the public communication of the association “Lithuanian Basketball” (ALK) and what, according to him, he has heard from current and former national team members about the processes happening inside it.
“It’s relevant to everyone, the whole of Lithuania is hurting,” J. Mačiulis immediately stated. “We watch those press conferences, those evasions… We can return to the thought that in 2002 we didn’t qualify for the WC and in 2003 we won the EC. But those players then wanted to come back and prove themselves, they knew they had made mistakes and were guilty, they had ambition. Now players don’t feel guilty. I hear a lot of echoes about coaches, assistants, about everything happening around the national team.
How can you express confidence if you talk to other candidates? All those lies, brain washing, well, it’s terribly unpleasant, ugly. Sometimes I even think: what is ALK thinking about the whole basketball community? An attempt to mock some of our statements, like what Benas Matkevičius said about the country’s basketball elite. The person doesn’t even understand what the talk is about. The elite are people who have achieved something, who work, who understand.
On Donatas Urbonas’s “Off The Record” podcast, Martynas Pocius already said that the elite are not rich people, no. They are people who work at the highest level, who have the most experience. These are people who should have something to pass on to others. But for some reason, they are not needed.”
Asked why, if the problems are so deep, more people from the basketball community do not speak out loudly about them, Mačiulis said he had heard about fear of negative consequences. At the same time, he shared one case personally told to him.
“Since I myself am involved in this basketball world, I have heard echoes that people are afraid to leave because there is strong retaliation from the federation side,” explained J. Mačiulis. “I don’t want to elaborate, but I met with certain people and they told me that Balčiūnas, upon learning that the vote was not for him, redistributed the incentive basket and directed the allocated funds elsewhere. There are many such things.
So when they talk about some kind of unity, it’s ridiculous. Because no, divisions are happening. Honestly, I don’t know what some people are doing there.”
One of the most prominent recent national team topics has been the numerous player refusals to come to the national team. According to Mačiulis, when evaluating players’ decisions, one should also consider the conditions under which they come to the team and what they sacrifice for it.
“We Lithuanians go to the national team without pay. All other national teams receive significant money – per diems. Our national team still gets a bowl of soup, a pork chop, and three t-shirts,” explained the former basketball player. “NBA players come and, honestly, they sacrifice. How many major injuries have there been? What does Buzelis owe Lithuania? He grew up, trained, and played in the USA all his life. The same goes for Brazdeikis.
Players come here, enter a certain training environment where the assistant after training looks at the clock and says: ‘Oh, we still have half an hour, let’s work for another half hour.’ Everyone comes from normal systems where training sessions and schedules are arranged. But here they come into complete chaos, where the training plan is just made up, no understanding. So why come here if you are not protected, not supervised?”
He did not rule out the possibility that in the future the national team’s backstage might be spoken about much more extensively and admitted that at the moment he himself probably would not go to the national team.
“I think that soon someone will sit down and tell what has been going on inside during these two years and what is happening now,” Mačiulis pondered. “I only have rumors, stories from players I get along with. I haven’t missed a single summer, but from what I hear – I would probably refuse too.”
Due to the large number of absent players, there has been speculation in the public space whether this could be a kind of silent boycott of the national team. Mačiulis believes a real boycott should be clearly stated, and the current situation rather shows a lack of authority.
“I think that boycott either has to be loud or not exist at all,” said Mačiulis. “Now it seems there is simply a lack of authority. I can’t imagine anyone saying ‘no’ to Sabas, Kazlauskas, or even Adomaitis.
I remember very well our conversation with Adomaitis – I was walking around the store, he called me, we talked, and I said: ‘Dainius, what are we talking about? You ask if I will come? Let’s talk about something else, of course I will come.’ There is no question of how I could refuse. Now there is no such authority.
Read more Influential FIFA official who criticized Infantino’s ambitions – dismissed
It is possible to gather everyone, as we saw in the last window, but they came and saw what a mess it is here and don’t want to come anymore.”
One of the players that national team fans have been waiting for the most recently is Matas Buzelis. However, after his debut, J. Mačiulis doubts that the young NBA forward will return to the national team anytime soon.
“When everything changes,” Mačiulis answered the question “when will Buzelis play for Lithuania again?” “I very much doubt he will come to these coaches anymore, and then – we’ll see. I also communicated with him, he was loudly introduced in Vilnius, had high expectations, was overhyped, but we see how everything is going.”
The conversation also touched on a much more distant perspective – the 2028 elections for the president of the association “Lithuanian Basketball.” J. Mačiulis’s name has already been mentioned among possible candidates, but the former basketball player emphasized that there are more potential alternatives to the current leadership.
“Everyone caught my name, but there are more names we communicate with. The opposition is definitely forming,” assured J. Mačiulis, who currently serves as the director of Panevėžys “Lietkabelis.” “There are at least four names, and they are even more famous, just not so loudly publicized. For some reason, my name as a flag bearer has been caught.
Would I be ready? At least to try, I think yes. But from what I hear, very serious uncles will be needed. Now the question is – what if we manage to win? From what we have heard about what is going on, it’s scary. I don’t know what kind of team would be needed – lawyers, financiers, auditors, and so on.”
However, the nearest challenge for the national team is not the federation elections but the second stage of the World Championship qualifiers starting at the end of August. And Lithuania faces it heavily depleted.
“The perimeter bleeding is huge – Jokubaitis is injured, but we don’t have Jakučionis, Velička, nor Brazdeikis, Sargiūnas,” said J. Lekšas. “Now it seems everything will revolve around Tubelis and Motiejūnas because they can still do something individually.”
One of the most important changes in the recent window was Donatas Motiejūnas’s return to the national team. J. Mačiulis said he had heard that this decision might have been one of the reasons some players refused the invitation to the national team.
It is said that it was D. Motiejūnas who, after the Olympic qualifier in Puerto Rico in 2025, brought to light information about, allegedly, the lost sporting regime of the national team members.
“I heard that a couple of players refused to come purely because of him,” said J. Mačiulis. “Well, really, if a person snitches on you – I personally wouldn’t really want to play because what kind of trust would there be in that person? We all talk about the atmosphere, teamwork in the Lithuanian national team. We had everything, but nothing went public.
After all, the question is, who spoke up. If we started telling all the things, even about him – what kind of circus he caused. This is not good. The wrong person spoke.”
Lithuania will face Turkey’s basketball players away on August 28 and will host Bosnia and Herzegovina’s basketball players in Vilnius on August 31. But before that, there are three friendly matches.
Our team will host the Estonians in Kaunas on August 20, and then play two matches against NCAA teams – on August 22 in Alytus against the Arizona Wildcats, represented by Motiejus Krivas and Ugnius Jaruševičius, and on August 23 in Vilnius against last season’s NCAA champion – the Michigan Wolverines team.
The show’s duo tried to guess the outcomes of all three friendly matches this week, but before that, J. Mačiulis singled out what interests him most in this cycle of friendly games.
“It will be very interesting to see how Arizona plays, I’m really looking forward to it. I think our reserve national team will lose by 30-40 points, and the main team will face a serious challenge. It would have been very interesting to see their game against our real national team with Buzelis, Jakučionis, and the like. It will definitely be very interesting, I’m looking forward to it, I will go to watch myself. Like a little kid waiting,” smiled J. Mačiulis.
Read more Laima revealed her signature recipe: marinated tomatoes that you can prepare very easily
