Independent but broke, Lithuania emerged from the fallen heap of the communist empire with no money to support a national basketball team. Sabonis himself joined the Trail Blazers several years later in 1995. With more luck in 1989, the Golden State Warriors picked up Sabonis’ shooting guard teammate, Sarunas Marciulionis. But officials behind the iron curtain refused to let him go. Two years earlier, the Atlanta Hawks and the Portland Trail Blazers tried to draft Arydas Sabonis, the 7’3” Lithuanian center who would take down the Americans in Seoul. 82-76 in the semi-finals before moving on to top Yugoslavia for the gold.ĭo you shop on AMAZON? Support us at SPORTS HISTORY WEEKLY by clicking here for any of your AMAZON shopping needsįour of the five starting players in the Soviet lineup were Lithuanian and what’s more, they all came from the same city of Kaunas. At the 1988 Games in Seoul, the Soviet Union defeated the U.S. They were members of Moscow’s bronze, silver, and gold medal winning teams at every Summer Olympics between 19 (except '84). Basketball didn’t lose its luster as the most popular sport, but Lithuanians were now playing for Soviet greatness, not for their own. Towards the end of the war, Russian tanks rolled into Lithuania and the tiny nation of 3 million was absorbed into the USSR. Frank Lubin, "grandfather of Lithuanian basketball", played for UCLA and then led the old country to their European title just months before the outbreak of WWII. The Baltic state won the European Basketball Championship twice, in 19. Lithuania had enjoyed a proud and accomplished basketball tradition. But even fewer predicted that a newly-freed nation out of the old Soviet bloc would rise to become a medal contender.īUY- Sarunas Marciulionis autographed 1990-91 rookie trading card That year, few expected Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and the rest of the NBA-drawn “Dream Team” not to win gold. Their story was a magical tale of tie-dyes, basketball glory, and the birth of a new nation. In 1991, the iconic Grateful Dead music band helped sponsor Lithuania’s national basketball team, a talented but financially-strapped squad that went on to win bronze at the Seoul Olympics.
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