This player is 31-year-old Slovenian Matic Rebec, who signed a short-term contract with the Žemaitija club and who, together with Goran Dragić and Luka Dončić, lifted the European champions title in 2017.
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The 180 cm tall point guard’s career has wound through many clubs, and in 2025, during the fourth year of the large-scale Russian war against Ukraine, he wore the jerseys of Nizhny Novgorod from Lower Nizhny Novgorod.
When introducing the newcomer, the “Tauragė” club did not mention this stop in the basketball player’s career in its press release, which sparked a fire in the public space.
“There are many emotions because everyone is calling and writing to me now. This topic is burning now, so we need to see how to put it out. Maybe we should have evaluated this fact more,” 15min said Aivaras Skarbalius, head of the “Tauragė” club. “It is unpleasant for me to hear that we are a ‘vatnik club,’ because I myself drive to Ukraine, drive ambulances, and still deliver aid to Ukrainians.”
“He has played in Russia, we talked about it before signing the contract. Matic is not proud of this short stage of his career, it was only a couple of months. We talked, it seemed that the person spoke correctly, the values are right, but now such a commotion has arisen, the situation is unpleasant, so we need to think about how to solve it,” 15min said A. Skarbalius.
The basketball player himself shared a message after the storm on social networks.
“Hello, ‘Tauragė’ fans,
I am very much looking forward to joining your club and helping the team achieve its goals.
I have had a long career and understand that my short stint in Russia, lasting only about two months, may raise questions in Lithuania. At that time, I went there only as a professional basketball player due to the circumstances of my career.
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I know that the club management stands on the side of the victims of the war in Ukraine, and I respect and support the values of the club and the people of Lithuania. I do not support war or violence and sincerely hope that peace will prevail and a peace agreement will be reached.
I am grateful to the club for the trust shown in me. I greatly respect Lithuania, this club, and its people. I am here to play basketball and do it as well as possible.
Sports should unite people, and I will do everything to represent ‘Tauragė’ and its fans as best as possible.
See you in Tauragė!” wrote M. Rebec.
A. Skarbalius does not hide that there is discussion within the club about M. Rebec’s future in “Tauragė”.
“We are thinking, really thinking about what to do here. We do not want to stir up commotion in society, so we need to act wisely. Our club is not some kind of neutral. Our position is clear, value issues are important to us, and ‘Tauragė’ is on the right side,” 15min said the head of “Tauragė”. “The fact that he was there for a couple of months is unpleasant, but we talked and his views seemed normal. Our club is completely pro-Ukrainian, so it turned out ugly. Maybe we slipped a bit here because the fact of playing in Russia does not disappear anywhere. We now need to put everything together in our heads and make a decision.”
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