Sabonis, Valanciunas set to play for Lithuania in friendlies against Slovenia, Lebanon

VILNIUS (Lithuania) - The Lithuanian Basketball Federation announced at a press conference on Tuesday morning that star big men Jonas Valanciunas and Domas Sabonis offered a strong "yes" to playing for the National Team this summer. This is probably the best way to kick-start their 2024 summer campaign.

Lithuania had their long streak of appearances at the Summer Games snapped a few summers ago when Slovenia beat them in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament Final in Kaunas. And Slovenia will be the country the Baltic side faces in its last two preparation games, the federation has confirmed, before the national team travels to the Americas to play in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

 Sabonis and Valanciunas will be together again in the Lithuania squad this summer

First up on the preparation schedule of opponents for Lithuania will be three home games against Lebanon, who will be taking part in the OQT in Valencia.

Lithuania will face Lebanon in Jonava on June 10, in Kedainiai on June 12 and in Panevezys on June 14. The Cedars made it to the Final of the FIBA Asia Cup 2022 in Jakarta before falling to Australia, 75-73.

Lebanon then participated in last year's FIBA Basketball World Cup, playing all five of their games in Jakarta, winning twice to finish 23rd among the 32 teams.

Slovenia, led by Luka Doncic, finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, sixth at FIBA EuroBasket 2022 and seventh at last year's World Cup. They will play at the OQT in Piraeus.

Doncic and Slovenia beat Lithuania in the Kaunas OQT Final in 2021

Slovenia will be Lithuania's friendly opponents on June 23 in Vilnius, and will then host a game between the national teams in Ljubljana on June 25.

Lithuania will then fly to San Juan, with the OQT tipping off on July 2. In Puerto Rico, Lithuania will play in Group A against Côte d'Ivoire and Mexico. Italy, Puerto Rico and Bahrain will play in Group B.

"An interesting summer awaits," Lithuania coach Kazys Maksvytis said, "and since I myself have the opportunity to join earlier, I will organize the first stage myself, which I could not do last year.

"We'll meet on June 3 and finish before the main national team camp. One week we will train and the second week we will have three test games against Lebanon.

"The goal is to collect those players that are close to the threshold of the national team. Young players, maybe not so young, but close to the national team... As we saw, last year such a project was successful, even two players - (Deividas) Sirvydis and (Gabriellius) Maldunas - made it to the main team."

Lithuania and Slovenia have squared off again since their OQT meeting. They played on opening day in the Group Phase of FIBA EuroBasket 2022 in Cologne, a game Slovenia won, 92-85.

Starting in 1992, when they claimed a bronze medal in Barcelona after gaining independence, Lithuania played at every Olympics through the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. The last time Lithuania played at a FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in the Americas, in 2012 in Venezuela, the team grabbed one of three spots on offer for the London Games. 

FIBA