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Lithuanians in the EuroLeague: Facts

Žalgiris, Sabonis, Jasikevičius and other Lithuanians in the EuroLeague: titles, records and stories.

1986 In 1986 Žalgiris, led by Arvydas Sabonis, reached the European Champions Cup final, where they lost to Cibona Zagreb.

UCLA Tyus Edney, 1999 Final Four MVP with Žalgiris, was already a US legend: in 1995 he went coast to coast in 4.8 seconds to beat Missouri at the buzzer for UCLA.

82-74 In the 1999 final in Munich Žalgiris Kaunas beat Kinder Bologna 82-74 to become European champions for the only time.

63 In January 2004 Žalgiris center Tanoka Beard posted a 63 index rating against Skipper Bologna. At the time it was a EuroLeague record.

2009 Lietuvos Rytas became the first Lithuanian club to win the ULEB Cup in 2005, and in 2009 the first club to win it twice. They also reached the 2007 final in between.

2008 Ramūnas Šiškauskas won the 2008 EuroLeague with CSKA Moscow and was named regular-season MVP.

17.1 In 2010 Linas Kleiza of Olympiacos was the EuroLeague's top scorer with 17.1 points a game.

2011 Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas opened in 2011 for EuroBasket. It holds about 15,000 fans and is the largest arena in the Baltic states.

2 Rimas Kurtinaitis coached Khimki to two EuroCup titles, in 2012 and 2015. In the first of those finals they beat Valencia 77-68.

79:77 At the 2018 Final Four in Belgrade, Šarūnas Jasikevičius's Žalgiris finished third, beating CSKA Moscow 79-77 in the third-place game.

2022 In 2022 Rokas Jokubaitis of Barcelona was named EuroLeague Rising Star, the first Lithuanian to win the award.

2023 In 2023 Kaunas became the first city in the Baltic states to host a EuroLeague Final Four, held at Žalgiris Arena.

2023 In 2023 Žalgiris general manager Paulius Motiejūnas became acting CEO of Euroleague Basketball, and in 2024 he was confirmed in the post.

2025 Šarūnas Jasikevičius, a four-time EuroLeague winner as a player, won it as a head coach too in 2025, with Fenerbahçe.

14 In summer 2026 Jonas Valančiūnas came home after 14 NBA seasons and signed for Žalgiris. He had started his career at their rivals, Rytas Vilnius.

4 Šarūnas Jasikevičius won the EuroLeague four times as a player, more than any other Lithuanian.

13 Paulius Jankūnas spent almost his whole career at Žalgiris, and the club raised his number 13 to the rafters.

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