Valanciunas double-doubles again to enter record books
MANILA (Philippines) - With Lithuania enjoying a stellar start to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, Jonas Valanciunas earned an additional individual accolade as he moved into the rebounding top 10.
MANILA (Philippines) - With Lithuania enjoying a stellar start to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 and being among the first teams to qualify for the Second Round, Jonas Valanciunas earned an additional individual accolade as he moved into the World Cup rebounding leaderboard.
Participating in his third edition of the tournament, the 31-year-old Lithuanian center had a couple of strong games against Egypt and Mexico.
They were almost identical, with 15 points and 10 rebounds against Egypt, and then 15 and 12 versus Mexico, making him only the second player with multiple double-doubles in three World Cups, after Puerto Rico's Jose Ortiz.
With 22 rebounds in two games, Valanciunas moved up to 10th spot on the all-time rebounding list.
He began the tournament in 20th place and has already passed Nemanja Bjelica, Rudy Fernandez, Omer Asik, Yi Jianlian, Yao Ming, Kerem Gonlum, Boris Diaw, Carlos Jimenez, Tiago Splitter and now Daniel Santiago.
Hamed Haddadi is the only active player with more rebounds than Jonas.
Official rebounding data for the World Cup is available as of 1994.
| RANK | NAME | COUNTRY | REBOUNDS | GAMES |
| 1. | Luis Scola | ARG | 280 | 41 |
| 2. | Fabricio Oberto | ARG | 224 | 32 |
| 3. | Jose Ortiz | PUR | 212 | 33 |
| 4. | Anderson Varejao | BRA | 195 | 29 |
| 5. | Pau Gasol | ESP | 186 | 24 |
| 6. | Marc Gasol | ESP | 172 | 32 |
| 7. | Dirk Nowitzki | GER | 157 | 18 |
| 8. | Hamed Haddadi | IRI | 158 | 16 |
| 9. | Joaquim Gomes | ANG | 143 | 23 |
| 10. | Jonas Valanciunas | LTU | 142 | 15 |
FIBA