Neptunas bring Lithuanian pride to Basketball Champions League
KLAIPEDA (Basketball Champions League) - So much has changed for Lithuanian LKL league finalists BC Neptunas Klaipeda since 1998, when a side led by sharp-shooter Arvydas Macijauskas played its first-ever
KLAIPEDA (Basketball Champions League) - So much has changed for Lithuanian LKL league finalists BC Neptunas Klaipeda since 1998, when a side led by sharp-shooter Arvydas Macijauskas played its first-ever European game, in the FIBA Korac Cup.
Neptunas will compete in the inaugural Basketball Champions League next season on the back of the most successful stretch in the history of the club, which was founded in 1964. It started after former player Osvaldas Kurauskas assumed the role of club director and the modern Svyturys Arena became the new home of the team.
Oficialu: Klaipėdos "Neptūno" valdyba priėmė sprendimą ateinantį sezoną varžytis FIBA Čempionų lygos turnyre.... https://t.co/YvyxvvAiWc
— BC Neptunas Klaipeda (@bc_neptunas) 20 June 2016
"Since 2012 we have reached the LKL semi-finals four years in a row and finished as runners-up twice," Kurauskas said. "We returned to international competitions in 2012/13 when we played in the VTB United League and big clubs like CSKA Moscow came to Klaipeda. Our fans enjoyed it enormously, they gradually got used to seeing foreign teams. Two years later, in the Euroleague, we defeated at home famed big clubs like Olympiacos or Laboral Kutxa. By now it has become a must to play in a European competition besides the national league. I would say we are now a little spoilt so we have to maintain this level because it would be difficult to go back."
The motor of Neptunas's success has been their loyal fanbase as the club is a fundamental part in the lives of the people of Klaipeda, Lithuania's third-largest city. The roster is traditionally made up mostly from national or even local players, an element which makes the ties with fans even closer.
"We have a good basketball school in Klaipeda and we have the principle of keeping our national players at the club," Kurauskas explained. "When there is on the national team a player who was born and raised here (Deividas Gailius, who won silver with Lithuania at FIBA EuroBasket 2015, is the latest example), it is a source of pride for us. As we have mainly Lithuanian players we are not fighting only for contracts or for the club, we're fighting for our city and for Lithuania. It is an entirely different feeling and atmosphere here compared to some of the most wealthy clubs."
"For two years in a row, Svyturio Arena was the arena with the highest attendance in our national championship and at European games we had 98% occupancy. Lietuvos Rytas and Zalgiris Kaunas have much bigger arenas but we had more spectators, that is enormously important. We were elected this past season as the best organisation in Lithuania and this recognition made us very proud, we will do everything to stay at this level."
Neptunas hope that this golden era will continue with their participation in the Basketball Champions League, although Kurauskas stirs away from setting high expectations.
"We will do our best to go as far as possible, but we don't like to talk about it, we just want to work patiently and we'll see what happens," the Neptunas director said. "The main impression I got from the Basketball Champions League presentation is that it's ambitious to create a project which is based on sporting principles and gives big importance to the national leagues. The national championships are important to each country and it's very good to keep them as the foundation.
"As far as the financial aspect is concerned it's difficult at this stage to talk concretely but what is certain is the more attractive this competition becomes, the more clubs share their impressions of it and want to become a part of it, then the more the financial part will improve and that's important to any club."