What is it with Lithuania? They're always a thorn in our side.
Ooooohhh I got this one. I was at U WOrcester the night they were celebrating the 20th year of association between the Lithuanian Basketball Academy (nationally sponsored governing body) and the University. Besides the free food and alcohol I was able to listen to the program the Lithuanians have embarked on to make their basketball relevant to the world.I also got a lesson in world politics as it relates to athletics and how the FiBA exclusion worked during the time Lithuania was part of the Soviet bloc while establishing relations with countries on the other side of the Iron Curtain.. Having read the
SI article earlier and then listening to Coach James and Mick Donovan each recount his association with the Lithuanians who call
WOrcester their home away from home I was really enthralled to speak to them and listen to their program focus and implementation of basketball from the placement of players in AMerican Universities to recently establishing the
Masters program in Coaching at WOrcester to groom their coaches (some spots for Americans wanting to go overseas to coach as well as their own home grown stars coming the other way) who they see as the reason for and method to ascendency to a place at the top of the world basketball scene.
Interesting quotes from the SI article
-Basketball is the only sport the 3.2 million Lithuanians truly care about—it's their second religion, after Catholicism—and their success is proportionately stunning.
where basketball is a religion draws a parallel I related to and asked them about what the author had written
On my way out of Lithuania, I drive to Utena (pop. 32,000), which Valanciunas calls a "small city, growing bigger, getting better." There are pockets along the route that remind me of Indiana: hoops on garages next to farmhouses, backboard poles set in dirt yards, ....
Lithuania truly sees hoops as a way to make a name in the world and has turned their focus on that goal by starting with the making of and certification of great coaches to teach the game the right way, starting academies as only eastern bloc countries know how and making the game a part of the culture.....Seems to be working for a tiny country that has a habit of making it to the medal stand and placing guys in the NBA draft.