The LKS team, associated with the richest Lithuanian man Gediminas Žiemelis, dramatically lost the decisive series last season for the right to play in the top Polish league, so they will continue to compete in the country’s second division.
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However, LKS had a different plan. As Łukaszas Cegliński from sport.pl, writes, the Łódź team had applied to play in the Adriatic League but received a negative response.
“I admit that the Adriatic League was a bit of a crazy idea,” said LKS club vice president and main sponsor Maciej Olszyński. “We tried to somewhat bypass the system and play at a higher level.”
Sport.pl adds that such an idea would have allowed attracting better players, and EuroLeague clubs such as Belgrade’s Partizan or Crvena zvezda would have come to Poland again after a long break.
According to M. Olszyński, LKS’s budget next season will be about 1-1.15 million euros. This will be about a 10-25% increase compared to last season, and “the only task remains promotion to the country’s top league.”
The mentioned sport.pl journalist continues that “the LKS team was enriched by the addition of T. Pačėsas, and the money most likely came from G. Žiemelis, although neither officially confirms this.”
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It is added that “with the Łódź team rising to the top division, even more generous support is expected from the richest Lithuanian businessman.”
Another Polish portal super-basket.pl reported in mid-spring that T. Pačėsas had taken over some head coach functions in the team – directing training sessions and preparing the team for the most important battles.
“Our analysis showed that Łódź is a great place for a bigger basketball team,” sport.pl T. Pačėsas himself said.
“And yes, our goal is to rise to the top Polish league. Last season we were very close to that. Now we are looking for foreign players, choosing a coach. We want to calmly and responsibly think everything through because last season we changed three head coaches. Now we want stability. There is a lot of work ahead, so step by step.”
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