Zalgiris Kaunas 2008-09, team profile
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 Zalgiris Kaunas is back to the Euroleague for more challenges after a strong season on all fronts in 2007-08. The traditional Lithuanian powerhouse not only reached the Euroleague Top 16, but swept a trio of titles, lifting the Baltic League crown, winning its 15th Lithuanian League title since the country became independent in 1991 and also claiming the Lithuanian Cup. Zalgiris stands as a true representative of a basketball-crazy country due to its long and prosperous tradition. The best basketball players from Kaunas formed the club in 1944, and just three years later, they won their first Soviet Union title. Zalgiris would be Soviet League champion five times (1947, 1951, 1985-87) and runner-up seven times. A new international chapter began for Zalgiris in 1981, when it reached the quarterfinals of the Saporta Cup. With legends Arvydas Sabonis, Rimas Kurtinaitis and Valdemaras Homicius, Zalgiris reached the European title game in 1986, only to lose the crown to Cibona and Drazen Petrovic. Following independence in 1990, Zalgiris took the first nine Lithuanian League championships home to Kaunas, creating a dynasty that extended into Europe. In 1998, the team captured its first-ever European trophy, the Saporta Cup. A year later, it shocked the continent by storming to the 1999 Euroleague title, not to mention those of the Lithuanian League and the Northern European Basketball League, with an new-found offensive style that influenced the sport heading into the new century.
2007-08 RESULTS | Euroleague | | Baltic League | R. Season | 15-3 | Playoffs | Champion |
| Lithuanian League | R. Season | 16-2 | Playoffs | Champion |
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Players like Tyus Edney, Saulius Stombergas, Anthony Bowie, Eurelijus Zukauskas and Jiri Zidek helped Zalgiris show that fun-to-watch basketball could also win Euroleague titles. Zalgiris was seconds away from the Euroleague Final Four in 2004 until eventual champion Maccabi Tel Aviv won their dramatic do-or-die Top 16 finale in overtime. Zalgiris also won three consecutive Lithuanian League titles between 2003 and 2005, the year in which the club also added the first-ever Baltic League trophy. One of the secrets to Zalgiris's success comes from up high, with the legendary Sabonis serving as club president. With a basketball hero setting high goals and standards, the entire club has found success, like the junior team, which won the 2007 Nike International Junior Tournament at the Final Four in Athens. By developing youth at a high level, Zalgiris can look forward to a full future, but there is also no time like the present for the club as the 2009-09 season marks 10 years since its historic Euroleague championship. The anniversary stands as a reminder that for as long as basketballs bounce in Europe, Lithuania always has a challenger to the highest titles.
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Euroleague.net
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