Jonas Mačiulis, who played for the Lithuanian national team from 2007 to 2021 and won four medals in major tournaments, is closely watching the fire that broke out in the “Lithuanian Basketball” association after another blow in the World Cup qualifiers.
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The national team, backed into a corner, may miss the World Championship for the first time since 2002, and the heads of the country’s basketball are currently deciding the future of the main general Rimas Kurtinaitis at the helm of the team.
“The chances of qualifying for the championship are really small, four wins in the second stage probably won’t be enough for a ticket to the tournament. All chances will be seen at the end of August when we play against Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina. If there are not two wins in August, then we can bury all chances and organize new elections – for coaches, presidents, and everyone else,” Jonas Mačiulis told 15min. “If there is no World Championship, then there probably won’t be the Olympic Games either, the whole cycle would be buried. What then would the president do there further?”
The country’s basketball community was even more angered than by the result itself by R. Kurtinaitis’s rhetoric after the failure in Bologna, when the strategist said after another loss that he was not making a tragedy out of it.
“Everyone sees the situation differently. The coach does not see a tragedy in not qualifying for the World Championship, those are his thoughts. I am not talking about the game, but a 3-3 result in such a group is, to put it mildly, not the best. I think there should have been at least 5 wins, but there were none,” J. Mačiulis said to 15min.
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In basketball circles, it is said that there is a group of players in the national team who promise not to participate in the August “window” if they do not see appropriate changes.
One of these players is the long-time captain Jonas Valančiūnas.
“Previously, other coaches managed to prepare for the weekly windows. Now there are various talks that players will boycott and not go to the national team, I have not delved into what is happening in the national team and how the training process looks, but I have not seen such things (possible boycott) yet,” J. Mačiulis continued. “If players do not want to play, then the coach needs to be changed. If that is the case, the highest authorities must understand that the coach needs to be changed, changes are needed.
But what coach would now take on such a situation to save something? To save something and achieve something now is very difficult. If someone comes, tries and fails, they can point fingers at the previous coaches, and if they succeed, then they will become a hero.”
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