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Lithuania National Basketball Team: Facts

The Lithuania national team: gold in 1937, 1939 and 2003, Olympic bronze medals and famous wins.

2 Frank Lubin won Olympic gold with the USA in 1936, then, as Pranas Lubinas, led Lithuania to the 1939 European title.

1939 Lithuania won EuroBasket in Riga in 1937 and in Kaunas in 1939. The next gold took 64 years.

24-23 Lithuania won the 1937 EuroBasket final in Riga against Italy by a single point, 24-23. Pranas Talzūnas was named the best player of the tournament.

23-21 At the first women's EuroBasket in 1938, Lithuania beat hosts Italy 23-21, yet Italy took the title and Lithuania settled for silver.

6 The Kaunas Sports Hall was built in six months for EuroBasket 1939, making Kaunas the first European city with an arena designed for basketball.

4 Four Lithuanians, including Stepas Butautas and Justinas Lagunavičius, played for the Soviet team that won EuroBasket 1947 in Prague, the USSR's first title.

17 Arvydas Sabonis was only 17 when he won the 1982 World Championship with the Soviet Union in Colombia.

1992 Lithuania's 1992 bronze-winning team collected their medals in Barcelona wearing tie-dye T-shirts sponsored by the Grateful Dead.

1995 Šarūnas Marčiulionis was MVP and top scorer of EuroBasket 1995 in Athens, averaging 23.7 points a game.

80-74 Lithuania won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics by beating Australia 80-74 in the third-place game.

72-62 Lithuania's women won EuroBasket 1997 in Hungary, beating Slovakia 72-62 in the final.

83-85 Lithuania led the USA 80-79 with 1:36 left in the Sydney 2000 semi-final but lost 83-85. Šarūnas Jasikevičius's last long shot missed.

2003 At EuroBasket 2003 in Sweden Lithuania won gold, and Šarūnas Jasikevičius was named MVP.

94:90 Lithuania beat the USA 94-90 in the group stage of the 2004 Athens Olympics. Šarūnas Jasikevičius scored 28, with three straight threes in the fourth quarter.

75-87 Lithuania finished fourth at the 2008 Olympics after losing the bronze-medal game 75-87 to Argentina.

99-88 Lithuania won their first World Championship medal in Turkey in 2010, beating Serbia 99-88 for bronze.

2011 Jonas Valančiūnas was MVP of the 2011 U19 World Championship in Latvia, averaging 23 points and 13.9 rebounds as Lithuania won gold.

2 Lithuania reached two EuroBasket finals in a row, in 2013 and 2015. They lost the first to France and the second to Spain.

67-64 Lithuania beat Serbia 67-64 in the EuroBasket 2015 semi-final in Lille, reaching their second European final in a row.

96-85 Slovenia beat Lithuania 96-85 in Kaunas in 2021 to reach its first ever Olympics, leaving the hosts without a ticket to Tokyo.

110-104 Lithuania beat the USA 110-104 at the 2023 World Cup in Manila, handing the Americans their first defeat of the tournament.

-20 In the 2026 Basketball Champions League final in Badalona, Rytas Vilnius came back from 20 points down to beat AEK Athens 92-86 in overtime. Simonas Lukošius hit a record seven threes.

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