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The Club Scene: Lietuvos Rytas
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 Lietuvos Rytas is a young club, entering just its eighth season since being founded in 1997. Few clubs have achieved so much in so short a time. From day one, the club has thrived under the sponsor whose name it takes, Lietuvos Rytas, the biggest daily newspaper in Lithuania. Lietuvos Rytas came to fill a hole left by what had been Vilnius's main basketball club, Statyba, which was founded in 1964 and had finished third in the Soviet Union championship back in 1979. The new club, however, is turning Lithuania's capital into a reference point in European basketball.
The team started out an all-Lithuanian roster, coached by Modestas Paulaskas and featuring solid players like Aurimas Palsis, Virginijus Sirvydis, or Egidijus Mikalajunas as well as young talents like Arnas Kazlauskas. Andrius Slezas, the only player who remains from the team's original roster, has good memories of those early days. "There were a number of local basketball stars playing in the team and I got a lot of expierence from them," Slezas says. "In addition to that, as a player I was happy with the team's management. Since the very establishment of the club the level of the organization was high and continuously improving."
Lietuvos finished in fifth place with a 23-16 record in its first Lithuanian League season, earning a spot in the 1999 Saporta Cup. Lietuvos Rytas decided to invest in some of the top talent in the country, young and old, and built a strong roster. In came rising star Ramunas Siskauskas to join veteran shooting legend Rimas Kurtinaitis and Andrius Geidraitis, the Lithuanian League's top scorer the previous season, not to mention a promising Lithuanian playmaker who just finished his NCAA career in the University of Maryland: none other than Sarunas Jasikevicius, now considered one of the best point guards in European basketball history after winning Euroleague titles with two different teams. That second season, Lietuvos Rytas made it all the way to the Lithuanian League final before losing to perennial champs Zalgiris Kaunas. It lost also in the first elimination round of the Saporta Cup against Aris Thessaloniki.
Jasikevicius left following that season, but Lietuvos Rytas remained the fastest rising team in Lithuania. The team signed promising Arvydas Macijauskas to team up with Siskauskas in a deadly duo of perimeter shooters, while also signing its first foreign playmaker, Eric Elliott. To the frontcourt was added center Robertas Javtokas, a pillar of the team since then, while Slezas was brought back after a season elsewhere. He definitely found a different, improved team after just one season away.
"Every year players changed and the club signed better players," Slezas recalled. "Consequently we achieved better and better results. When I came back I found players like Andrius Giedraitis, Arvydas Macijauskas, Ramunas Siskauskas. It was a great pleasure to play together with those fellows. It's amazing that it seems like yesterday we were one team and now they are among the best European players."
In the 2000 Saporta Cup, the club reached a new level, knocking off Bosna Asa, Hapoel Jerusalem and FC Porto en route to a two-point semifinals elimination at the hands of Kinder Bologna, a collection of stars who one season later would be Euroleague champions. Additionally, the team reached but lost the NEBL (Northern Europe Basketball League) final to CSKA Moscow. A first title was at hand, however, as Lietuvos Rytas won the Lithuanian League finals to break a decade of domination by Zalgiris. "That season was very important for our team. For the first time in LKL history we defeated Žalgiris. Besides, we lost to Kinder only by two points. That season helped us to join the European basketball clubs elite."
The 2000-01 season came with big expectations, as former Euroleague winner Kestutis Sestokas joined a core of returnees, but no new titles were to come. In the FIBA SuproLeague, Efes Pilsen defeated Lietuvos Rytas in the third and decisive game of the eighthfinals playoff, and Zalgiris did the same in both the NEBL semifinals and the Lithuanian League finals. The next season, Lietuvos Rytas came back strong, riding one of Europe's best shooting quartetes - Siskauskas, Macijauskas, Sestokas and Rimantas Kaukenas to a second NEBL title, beating Ural Great 79-74 in the title game and making it the Saporta Cup quarterfinals. The team bounced back in the 2002 Lithuanian League as well, becoming the regular season champion and beating Zalgiris 4-3 in the best-of-seven final playoffs. It all came down to the final game in Vilnius, in which Lietuvos Rytas beat Zalgiris 86-78 in overtime as Macijauskas scored 31 points and Siskauskas 25 in one of the biggest thrillers in Lithuanian basketball history.
"The second LKL champion's ring wasn't as exciting as the first, because we expected to win and believed that we could do it," Slezas said. "We felt that we were stronger than Zalgiris that season. So the second victory was natural."
The club's ambitions continued into 2002-03 season, even though the the team lost Javtokas for the whole season due to injuries from a life-threatening motorbike accident. Lietuvos Rytas returned to the Lithuanian League finals anyway, but Zalgiris got its 12th title with a 4-2 series victory. Macijauaskas starred that summer of 2003 as the Lithuanian national team won its first-ever European championship, and he did not return for the 2003-04 season, for which Lietuvos Rytas joined the ULEB Cup. With the return of Javtokas, Lietuvos won its regular season group and stormed in the ULEB Cup quarterfinals before losing to eventual champs Hapoel Jerusalem on points.
Before the game against Hapoel, all our players believed that we could win and we would win," Slezas said. "That's why the loss was a great disappointment and very painful for us. After the second game, none of my teammates could talk about that loss. I think Hapoel wasn't among the favorites in the ULEB Cup. They had three good players, but the style they played was unhandy for us. Therefore we missed one small step."
Lietuvos reached the Lithuanian League finals for the fifth time in as many seasons, but this time Zalgiris swept the series. A new look was required, especially with the team having moved into brand new Siemens Arena, Lithuania's biggest, with 11,00 seats. To make up for the departure of Siskauskas, the team signed a Euroleague star in Fred House, solid playmaker Roberts Stelmahers and veteran big man Haris Mujezinovic. After a coaching change in midseason, it also added Tyrone Nesby, veteran Gintaras Einikis and, once again, Lucas. The team has led the Lithuanian regular season consistently and finished the ULEB Cup regular season tied for the best record, 9-1. Despite the loss of its leader, House, to injury, Lietuvos Rytas survived the eighthfinals against one Greek team, Aris, and enters the quarterfinals against another, PAOK, with high expectations.
"It won't be easy, but I feel that we can qualify to the next round," Slezas says. "Our club's ambitions are very high and the ULEB Cup is a very important trophy for Lietuvos Rytas. This season we have a great team with very talented and experienced players. The injuries, however, are disappointing us, but as always we'll fight till the end."
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Javier Gancedo, ULEBcup.com
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